Pakistan People Party Senior Vice Chairman Yousaf Raza Gilani on Saturday said his party would do its utmost to introduce the Accountability Bill in the forthcoming session of the National Assembly.
He expressed the hope that other political parties in the House would show keen interest in making it into a law for ensuring transparency and accountability in the society as a whole.
He said that the PPP was committed to ensuring transparency and accountability as per its manifesto and therefore had decided to spearhead the move to table the bill in the National Assembly.
To another question, the former prime minister said that the PPP considered the minorities of Pakistan as its constituency and therefore had created a Ministry of Interfaith Harmony headed by Paul Bhatti as Advisor to the Prime Minister and Akram Gill as Minister of State, both of them belonging to the minority Christian community.
Gilani said that the PPP and its coalition partners were considering enactment of 21st Amendment in the constitution which would increase seats for the minorities in the National Assembly based on the principle of representation on the basis of the population.
To another question about the formation of a one-man commission to probe the Dr Arsalan Iftikhar graft scandal, the former prime minister said that the PPP leadership had also suffered from NAB’s witch-hunting. On formation of new provinces, Gilani said that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz was backtracking from its commitment on the creation of new provinces in Punjab by saying that it was conspiracy to divide the province.
“It was the Punjab Assembly that unanimously passed a resolution to the effect which resultantly set the process in motion for the creation of new provinces in Punjab as per constitutional procedures specified in the constitution,” he said.
PPP will do utmost for accountability law: Gilani
