Shujaat clears Zardari of memo blame

Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain on Tuesday said that President Asif Ali Zardari was not involved in the memo controversy and that the issue would soon be resolved. He was talking to reporters at a gathering organised by his party to celebrate the passage of “the Prevention of Anti-women Practices Bill”. Regarding his party’s strategy for the next general elections, Shujaat said that seat-to-seat adjustment between the PML-Q and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) would be held on merit.
The PML-Q president hoped that his former party members, who defected to the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI), would soon come back. Earlier while addressing the ceremony, Shujaat said his party had presented the bill to ensure equal rights to the women, adding that some members of his party had opposed the bill when the PML-Q tried to move it during its government in 2006. PML-Q Secretary General Mushahid Hussain also supported Shujaat’s statement that the party president had suggested moving the bill in 2006. He believed that women were more active than the men, and that female PML-Q members in Punjab Assembly were playing a very positive role as opposition. PML-Q legislator Donia Aziz said that almost three and a half years were invested in the bill before it was passed.
Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan said that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani had demanded resignation from Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States Hussain Haqani in order to ensure a fair and transparent inquiry into the issue. She told the Pakistan Television (PTV) that the prime minister had announced to investigate the issue. She said Haqqani’s resignation was being demanded by all stakeholders and the media. She said the inquiry would be conducted by an impartial body.