The Senate election will be held on schedule in March and stopping them through undemocratic means would have a negative impact on the country, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said on Sunday. Responding to callers from across the country in a live PTV’s Prime Minister Online programme, Gilani said conspiracies were being hatched to stop the Senate election. He said everyone knew that the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) would attain majority in the Senate elections. He told critics that everything should be done in accordance with the constitution.
The prime minister said it was the task of Information Ministry to highlight achievements of the government and the PPP government had a lot of achievements to show to the people. He said Pakistan was also affected the global economic recession like other countries and many companies were given bailouts. Gilani said despite all odds, 3,500 megawatts power were added to the national grid, adding that the government would become capable of avoiding unscheduled load shedding before the end of the tenure. The prime minister said a special cabinet meeting would be held onJanuary 3 to tackle the issues of energy and gas shortage.
“Power generation has reduced in the winter due to a shortage of water,” he said, adding that the government had been working on all alternative sources of energy. He underlined the need for consistency in policies, regretting that every government changed policies of the previous one. “We want to have consistent policies and the government should be given the chance to work,” he added. Gilani said fuel prices were a global issue. “The fuel prices at the international level are adjusted in the local market and the government does not want to continue the system of subsidies,” he said, adding that the government was making efforts to control the price hike. Referring to corruption charges against the government, he said every political government in the past was removed on such charges. He said the Parliamentary Committee on National Security had been preparing recommendations to review Pakistan’s relations with NATO and the US.
