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Saturday, November 23, 2024  
20 Jumada Al-Awwal 1446  

No constitutional turmoil, just hype of Sharif brothers: Gilani

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Monday reasserted his previous statements and clarifies his position in front of media in Islamabad.

He was addressing a gathering to regularize 661 contractual employees of the Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) and launch of its multimedia studio to live stream audio and video content.

"We have full respect of the courts, and I appeared before the courts thrice," the Prime Minister said.

Gilani said he was working in line with the Constitution. "I have no moral turpitude. I have complete immunity in discharge of my duties under Article 248 A," Prime Minister Gilani told reporters after the event.

He said he was yet to receive a copy of the order and he would avail his constitutional right to appeal, once the detailed judgement is issued. He said his shortest 30-second judgement, could get a place into the Guinness book of world records.

"I have the right to appeal, if rejected it will be sent to the Parliament, and it is upto them to turn me out or not," he said as the workers raised slogans of "Step forward Yusuf Raza, we are with you."

He said it was the prerogative of the Speaker National Assembly to decide about his future.

The Prime Minister rejected any constitutional crisis in the country. "There is no constitutional problem in Pakistan. Only the 'Sharif courts' are doing their own interpretations." He said even Imran Khan has said he would wait for the detailed judgement, before any decision.

"They (PML-N) can't even do a short march, what to talk of a long march," he said, when asked about the claims by the opposition for a long march.

He said the law of the land was same for all citizens and the nation would judge who is at right. Gilani also mentioned the

results of a by-election in Multan, in which the PPP candidate won the seat, hours after the Supreme Court had announced its verdict, sentencing him till the rising of the court.

He said the Sharif family committed a number of mistakes in the past and were doing so again. He mentioned the memo issue and

asked what did they achieve by raising the matter. He said Nawaz Sharif remained a convict for nine years after signing an agreement to leave the country for ten years with former President Pervez Musharraf.

"I want to know how their (Sharif brothers') travel from Adiala Jail to Jeddah was made possible?" Gilani asked.

He said he was sentenced for giving unemployed a job to Pakistanis and not Indian citizens.

He also asked whether former US President Bill Clinton was allowed to continue despite a conviction, while President Asif Ali Zardari had been in jail for eight long years.

Gilani said he had faced a jail term of five years, which according to the jail manual was equivalent to ten years of sentence.

He recalled that while framing the 17th and 18th amendment, the only issue raised by Nawaz Sharif was to add the condition of waiver on a third term for a Prime Minister.

"Even though it did not benefit us, yet we accepted to favour the desire of one person, against the 180 million."

The Prime Minister when asked about the Mehran gate scandal said, "we hope the decision on the matter is quick, as it was in our case."