Present system of governance a hotchpotch: PM Gilani PM Gilani concedes set-up neither parliamentary nor presidential

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani addressing to the students during 7th convocation of International Islamic University at convention centre. APP

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani on Sunday conceded that the present governance system in the country was a hotchpotch and said that it was neither parliamentary nor presidential.

“The system in the country is a hotchpotch as neither is it parliamentary nor presidential. Therefore, reforms are being introduced to restore the 1973 Constitution, which has a parliamentary system,” he said while responding to a query of a gold medallist at the seventh convocation of the International Islamic University here on Sunday at the Convention Centre. The prime minister had invited the gold medallists to put one question each to him.

Responding to a tricky question, the prime minister conceded that governance in the country was a hotchpotch and said the parliamentary form of government was what the Constitution had prescribed for the country and it was according to the vision of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. “If there is a parliamentary system in the country, then there will be no clash between the constitutional institutions as all will work under their constitutional ambit,” he said.

Responding to the query of another woman gold medallist regarding the code of ethics of media, the prime minister made it clear that he firmly believed in democracy and his government did not want to impose any curbs on the media. “The media is going through an evolutionary process and once it gets mature enough, it should be more responsible and the government has no intention to impose curbs on the media,” he added.

Responding to a query from another student regarding the blame game between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the prime minister said his government believed in having better relations with neighbours, including Afghanistan, Iran and India. “A stable Afghanistan is in Pakistan’s interest and we participated in the Donor’s Conference in Paris and also sponsored a conference in Islamabad for the reconstruction of Afghanistan,” he added.

The prime minister said majority of Afghans were good people, but some extremist elements were using drug money to exploit the situation in Pakistan and they were working on a foreign agenda to destabilise the country politically and economically.

To another question, he said people living in Fata were patriotic and they stood by Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah during the creation of Pakistan and an overwhelming majority voted in favour of Pakistan.

The prime minister said extremists had no religion and boundaries and they were against imparting education to girls. He assured the students that law and order would be restored soon. “We are trying to make Pakistan a more prosperous and democratic state.”

He said the internally displaced persons (IDPs) would return to their homes from Monday.When one of the gold medallists drew the attention of the prime minister towards lack of job opportunities in the country and said that although they were gold medallists yet they were not certain of getting a job, the prime minister responded that the government was well aware of this fact and was making strenuous efforts for creating more and more job opportunities.

“The law and order and economic situation are interlinked and if there is one suicide attack, there is flight of capital, so we are focusing our efforts on improving the law and order situation,” he added.