Pakistan’s defiance drawing US’ ire: Gilani

Responding to the United States’ allegations of the government’s complicity in the murder of journalist Saleem Shahzad, Prime Minster Yousaf Raza Gilani said on Saturday that the US was being tough because the PPP government had denied playing the role of a yes-man to America.
“If (US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman) Admiral Mike Mullen has proof [of his allegations], he should appear before the commission and present it,” he added.
Expressing optimism on the improving situation in Karachi, that the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) coalition government had designed such a strategy that normalcy would soon return to Karachi.
The prime minister said, however, that the government was in the eye of the storm, resolving one problem only to be immediately faced by the next. He hoped the MQM would return to the coalition government and said “we are ready to sit in the opposition if removed from government by the constitutional way”.
He said he saw no grand alliance in the making, but if one was formed, the PPP would welcome it. Talking to office-bearers of Lahore Press Club led by the club’s President Sarmad Bashir at his residence here on Saturday, Gilani said the PPP coalition government had taken a firm stand on the issue of drone attacks and the US raid that killed al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
Gilani said the PPP was the torch-bearer of reconciliation policy and wanted to proceed hand in hand with all allies and opposition parities in the greater national interest. He claimed that around 80 percent of the Charter of Democracy had been complied with, adding that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had quit from the Centre by its own choice and had separated the PPP from the Punjab government.
Despite all this, he said, the PPP would not let the PML-N government in Punjab collapse. He voiced support for district government elections, saying depriving the people of the right to vote for district governments would take away their right of franchise.