There Cannot Be A State Within State: PM

By Media Monitor Desk

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani Thursday said conspiracies were being hatched to oust the elected government, but vowed to fight for the rights of the people.

Addressing a gathering at the launch of an exhibition of rare photographs of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Pakistan Movement at Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA), Gilani said he is here to serve the people of Pakistan.

The prime minister said, "conspiracies are being hatched to pack-up an elected government. We remain in the government or in opposition, we will continue to protect the rights of the people".

Gilani categorically stated, "there cannot be a State within a State. Nobody can say that he is not under the government."

"Every institution of this country including the Ministry of Defence is under the Prime Minister of Pakistan", he added.

He said there should be no ambiguity about it and nobody should claim himself as an independent. "They are being paid from the State Exchequer, from your revenue and from your taxes."

"If somebody thinks that they are not under the government, they are mistaken. They are under the government and they remain under the government, because we are the elected representatives of the people of Pakistan."

The prime minister said it was for the first time in Pakistan's history that the president handed over his powers to the Parliament and was a simple figure-head while the Prime Minister is the Chief Executive.

"Now all state institutions acquire their powers from the Parliament."

Prime Minister Gilani said, "We have the highest respect and regard for the army of Pakistan as they have stood firmly against the extremist and terrorists, confronting the country."

"Our army is disciplined and follows the Constitution," he said.

Gilani said it were the people of Pakistan who had taken ownership to the fight against terrorism. He said he took the responsibility of the military actions being taken in the country and said, "No army can fight, without the support of the people."

Prime Minister Gilani said he was the longest serving Prime Minister of Pakistan with 45 months in the office so far after Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

Gilani said, if he cannot safeguard the rights of people of Pakistan, he will have no right to be the Prime Minister.

"If they say that they are not under the ministry of defense, then we should get out of this slavery, then this parliament has no importance, this system has no importance, then you are not sovereign," he said in the National Assembly.

"Nobody is above the law, all the institutions are subservient to the parliament," Gilani insisted.

He said the government had stood by the security services over a storm of American pressure over the Osama bin Laden killing, the November 26 Nato attack and the 2008 attacks on Mumbai.

"In the worst circumstances we doubled their salaries. They have to be accountable to parliament."

"We are being asked by the judicial commission (examining the May 2 US raid that killed bin Laden raid and how the Al-Qaeda leader lived in Pakistan undetected) about issuance of visas (to Americans).

"But I want to ask how was (bin Laden) living here for the past six years? On what type of visa was he living here? Why was security not taken care of, if he entered in Pakistan without a visa?"