Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani on Saturday said the government would give relief to the people in the next budget. "It is the only political government in the history of Pakistan which will present the fifth budget in May in which relief will be given to the people," he told media after inaugurating Multan Campus of the Air University.
He said the government had fulfilled yet another promise by holding the Senate elections in time proving incorrect negative predictions regarding Senate polls. To a question, he said there would be no caretaker or 'chair-taker' government while no PM would be removed illegally and unconstitutionally in the country. About US pressure on Pak-Iran gas pipeline project, the PM said Pakistan was a sovereign country having bilateral relations with various countries including Iran, and added, "We will do whatever is in our national interest."
He said there was ups and downs in relations with the United States, sometime it was good while sometime it became bad. To a question, the PM said the government believed in freedom of the Press and had no plan to impose restrictions on media. "All the institutions are passing through an evaluation process", he said, adding, "We want to strengthen the Parliament, Judiciary and Media but all the institutions should work within their domains."
He said tolerance was a key to success and the government was showing utmost tolerance since there was no political victimisation and no political prisoner in the country. About petroleum prices, the PM said those prices were linked with the international markets and when there was an upward trend in its prices, it affected the entire world. He, however, said the elected government did not want to put unnecessary burden on its people.
The PM said that Saraeki province was demand of the entire belt but conspiracies were being hatched to divert the attention of people from this issue by raising slogans of Bahawalpur or Hazara provinces. He said Bahawalpur was part of the Saraeki province, adding that Saraeki province would be established after consultation with the coalition partners to safeguard the rights of the people of the area.