Pakistan will not accept any country’s hegemony in the region, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said on Saturday in response to a statement by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in which she urged India to match its economic progress by taking a more assertive political role in Central and East Asia.
Talking to reporters at the PM’s Secretariat after presiding over the 13th Annual Awards Ceremony of the National Highways and Motorway Police, the prime minister said, “We don’t want any Chaudhry (regional chief) in the region.”
To a question on the resignations of MQM ministers, Gilani said the resignations tendered by the Sindh governor as well as provincial and federal ministers from the MQM had not been accepted therefore their status as ministers was still intact. On the arrest of Ghulam Nabi Fai, head of the Kashmir Center in Washington, Gilani said Fai was not a Pakistani citizen, but a citizen of Indian-held Kashmir. About Fai’s reported link with a sensitive agency, the prime minister said the matter was being investigated, adding, “Let the facts come to surface… we will see it then.”
Karachi: To a question about law and order in Karachi, he said it was a provincial subject and the federal government was in touch with the provincial government to improve the situation.
The prime minister said, “We respect the mandate of the provincial government.” However, he said opposition members had requisitioned the sessions of Senate and National Assembly to discuss the law and order in Karachi.
Gilani said he had especially asked the National Assembly chief whip to ensure the quorum in the session so that the members could discuss the law and order in the city and it was ensured that there should be no problem of quorum.
He said he himself had attended the session and the members expressed their point of view on the Karachi situation.
On the issue of Zafar Qureshi, the prime minister said he would give his response to the Supreme Court in this regard. About the financial conditions of Pakistan Railways and shortage of funds, the prime minister said, sufficient funds, in billions of rupees, had been provided to the Railways to improve its economic conditions. Regarding any change in the portfolio of the Ministry of Railways, he said Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, the railways minister was from a coalition partner and the government had full regard and respect for its coalition partners.
To a question about the allegations on the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for fudging in the figures of tax collection, the prime minister said the Ministry of Finance had been directed to take notice of these allegations.
