Gilani disappoints speculators, rules out executive-judiciary rift

Disappointing speculators who were expecting that the executive would use the parliament to take on the judiciary, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Monday brushed aside media speculation about a clash between parliament and the judiciary, saying the “false impression” could not trigger a clash between both institutions as parliament made the constitution while the judiciary interpreted it.
“It was parliament which restored the 1973 constitution to its original form in consensus with all the political parties. Today I read in newspapers that a resolution (against the judiciary) would be presented in parliament which saddened me. How is it possible as after the court’s verdict wherein it was stated that transfers and postings was the domain of the chief executive, there was no need for such a resolution,” the prime minister said speaking on a point or order in the National Assembly.
Respect: He said the government had respected all decisions of the judiciary and had implemented them, wondering how a party, whose leadership had rendered sacrifices in the struggle for restoration of the judiciary, would not respect it. However, referring to the Punjab government, the prime minister said his party could not allow anyone to come into power through turncoats and those who were planning to grab power though backdoors thinking that a clash between the judiciary and the executive would help them realise their dreams.
Ruling out any military intervention, Gilani said those who were waiting for a miracle to happen should be mindful of the fact that miracles do not happen anymore.
“My government always implemented the decisions of the Supreme Court in their letter and spirits whether it was the NICL, NRO, NAB chief or PCO judges’ case. When I was in a SAARC conference abroad, I was informed about the Supreme Court’s decision about reverting 54 federal secretaries. I immediately directed authorities concerned to not file an appeal and implemented the court orders,” he said.
He said the senior most judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Javed Iqbal, had also endorsed his stance that the government had implemented all the SC decisions.
He said all accused in the ARY gold case, including former PPP chairwoman Benazir Bhutto, were acquitted by an accountability court. “Now I ask who had registered the case and how much state expenditure had been used for fighting it,” he said.
He expressed dismay and anger over the statement of a leader of the opposition for provoking the bureaucracy to start an uprising against the government, asking how could such a statement be given once the issue of Sohail Ahmed was resolved in line with the court’s direction.
He said the government was ready to cooperate with the opposition for struggle to protect and strengthen all state institutions. He said he had nothing to do with the promotion of senior bureaucrats, rather all decisions were being taken by the Central Selection Board.
Refuting charges levelled by the prime minister, Mehtab Khan Abbasi, said the government should have taken pragmatic steps to resolve public issues instead of indulging in sloganeering.
”During the past three-and-a-half year’s rule, poverty has increased manifold, law and order situation became volatile and no action was taken to revisit the foreign policy despite joint parliamentary recommendations in this regard,” he said.
Criticising the treasury benches for adopting a faulty economic policy, Abbasi accused the government of taking loans from the State Bank of Pakistan during the last three and a half years to run its own affairs instead of loaning it to industrialists and the business community.
“During your government, the state institutions like Pakistan Railways and Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) sunk deep down. If we wanted to overthrow your government to grab power from backdoor, the long march would not have returned from Gujranwala and rather masses would have entered into the federal capital,” he said.
He said the incident of targeted killing in Karachi and Balochistan had not stopped while the energy crisis was badly affecting the country’s economy.
The opposition leader said the local and foreign investors were winding up their businesses from Pakistan and shifting it to other countries due to severe power and gas load shedding.