President Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday said since parliament was elected by sovereign people of Pakistan and it was the voice of the masses, it had every right to continue legislating on all issues of public concern and welfare of the people.
Addressing a gathering of ministers, senators, MNAs, MPAs and divisional and district office-bearers of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) at the Sindh Chief Minister’s House, he said it was the duty of everyone to accord parliament every respect it was entitled to having been elected by the sovereign people of Pakistan.
The president said being the real representatives of the people, the parliament reigned supreme in the democratic setup. He said the president was part of parliament under the constitution and he interacted and met parliamentarians, as parliamentarians were his constituents. He said that no law barred the president meeting his constituents. The president said that for the stability and smoothness of the system, it was necessary that every state institution respected the mandate of other institutions.
Zardari said the Pakistan People’s Party had pursued politics of reconciliation and had always been taking along other political forces.
He said the PPP was not new to conspiracies of anti-democratic forces and was fighting them for last four decades.
He said that the party, throughout its history, had successfully survived all sorts of propaganda and no conspiracies or propaganda could weaken or deter it from pursuing the people-oriented agenda.
The president said those who wanted to restrict political forces would not succeed.
He said that he had asked the Sindh chief minister to create more employment opportunities in the province on an urgent basis, as the people were asking for jobs.
The president also advised ministers, legislators and office-bearers of the PPP to maintain contact with the people and help address their issues.
Parliament is supreme, says President Zardari
