LAHORE: Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer has dispelled the impression that he called for the annulment of blasphemy laws and said he was misunderstood over the issue as he stressed only for the review of the law.
Speaking to the media, after attending Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)’s Punjab Assembly parliamentary party meeting, Taseer said that he took the mercy petition of Aasia Bibi, death convict in blasphemy case, to President Asif Ali Zardari and called for the review of the said laws.
He, however, said that everyone has his own point of view over the law and he too looked at the dark side of the laws that were harming the society. “PML-N’s Ayaz Mir demanded its annulment. I just sought amendment or review”, the governor said.
Punjab Finance Minister Tanvir Ashraf Kaira, the party’s provincial leadership including General Secretary Sami Ullah Khan, Finance Secretary Aurangzeb Barki and Information Secretary Dr Fakhar were also present. PPP Punjab President Imtiaz Safdar Warriach,
who chaired the parliamentary meeting, briefed the media about the final outcomes of the meeting. He demanded that an action must be initiated against the ambassadors and other culprits involved in the Wikileaks revulsions, terming the Wikileaks’ reports a conspiracy against the Muslims. Responding to a query, he said there was no reality in these reports and time would clear everything.
He said that the PPP would clean sweep in the upcoming Local Body Elections (LBE) and General Elections of 2013. He said PPP has its large vote bank in Punjab which actually belongs to Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, but there was a need to organize party workers.
He said that the tickets will be given to the workers and party youths for the upcoming LBE, not only to honor the workers but also to show them that the party trusts them. He said there was no grouping in the party and the meeting was arranged on Friday to interact directly with provincial ministers and legislators to increase coordination among them.
He said that party co-chairman had assigned him an important responsibility, to regain political strength of the party, and he would make his best efforts to come up to the expectations of the party central leadership.
Responding to another question, he said the provincial ministers, belonging to Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) or PPP, should have full authority to run their respective departments, as they can not be expected to deliver if they have no power. He asked the Punjab Chief Minister to transfer powers to the ministers.
Responding to a question, he denied the news of firing incident at his public meeting in Gujranwala.
