President Zardari on Monday said certain forces in the establishment do not want Pakistan Peoples Party government to complete its tenure. He said this while presiding over the PPP Central Executive Committee (CEC) meeting at the Awan-e-Sadr, which was attended by Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, federal ministers, CEC members and Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah.
The CEC members also passed a resolution expressing their full confidence in the leadership of party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, who is presently under serious criticism by opposition, media and even the coalition partners due to the controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) and some other policies.
President Zardari said PPP has come to power through people mandate, but some forces in the establishment do not want to see PPP to complete its tenure. "PPP is a democratic party and has come to power through people mandate and would protect the democracy with the help of masses," Zardari was quoted as saying.
He said a conspiracy is being hatched against the PPP government and it is need of the hour to create awareness among the masses. The President was quoted as saying that PPP would boldly face all the challenges and those who are dreaming of ending the PPP government would never succeed in their mission.
Sources said President Zardari urged the party to play its role for further strengthening democracy, saying that any attempt to destabilise the democratic process would not be allowed.
He said PPP has ended the dictatorship and the forces could not be able to destabilise PPP as the party is fully determined to play its due role for the strengthening of the democracy. "The victories of PPP are due to the party sacrifices and not a charity," he said.
Prior to the CEC meeting, one-on-one meeting between the Prime Minister and the President was also held and the former informed the President about the Balochistan package and fresh recommendations given by the Baloch leaders in their meeting with him.
The CEC meeting was also attended by some party leaders from Gilgit-Baltistan. The CEC congratulated the PPP members who won the elections in the area with overwhelming majority. The meeting also discussed the formation of government in Gilgit-Baltistan. However, sources said that no name was finalised for the first Chief Minister slot. The CEC members opined that the victory of PPP in Gilgit-Baltistan elections once again shows the confidence people have in the PPP government.
Meanwhile, a hand out issued by the Presidency said that President Zardari has said that the PPP was a huge political force and it was fully prepared to face all challenges.
Briefing media, spokesperson to the President, former Senator Farhatullah Babar said the President said that PPP had formed government with coalition partners in the Centre and all the provinces had thrown out dictatorship restoring Presidency to democratic forces and had embarked on a course of political and economic reformation and reconstruction. He said PPP was not doled out political victories through the charity of anyone but it had triumphed politically with the help of people of all the provinces. He said no matter what our opponent said and no matter how much the party leadership was subjected to vilification campaign, the party will not be deterred and will continue its forward march in the service of the people.
The party co-chairman said the vilification campaign against the party was aimed at weakening it politically and warned that those hoping to weaken us politically were living in a foul's paradise. He said the party had a long history of rendering great sacrifices for the sake of democracy and peoples' rights and was not afraid of rendering sacrifices if need arose. He said that the results of elections in Gilgit-Baltistan had convincingly demonstrated yet again that the people stood by the party and rejected the vilification campaign against it, Babar said.
Without naming anyone, the President said that some people write our obituaries almost daily but the more they write our obituaries the more they are disappointed and frustrated. "I salute the party, its workers and the people. We have stood together in the past and will stand together in the future as well," Babar quoted the President as saying.
A number of participants gave their assessments of the political situation. The meeting also adopted a unanimous resolution reposing complete confidence in the leadership of the Party co-chairman and President Asif Ali Zardari and the government.