Govt committed to restore peace in Karachi; across the board action being taken: PM

ISLAMABAD, Aug 25 (APP): Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani while reiterating the government’s commitment to restore peace in Karachi said Thursday an across the board action, without any political consideration, was being taken to achieve the objective.“The Sindh cabinet in its recent meeting in Karachi had decided to launch an across the board action, for which nine areas were also identified. It was also decided that in this respect no political pressure will be tolerated,”Gilani told journalists during an Iftar dinner he hosted for them here at the PM House. The Prime Minister rejected the view that the government exhibited any weakness or delay in the case of launching an action Karachi and said, “no government will desire to go home on the issue of law and order.” He said despite the fact that the law and order was the provincial subject, the federal government was extending its all out support to the provincial authorities to restore peace in Karachi. The Prime Minister, in response to a question, said it was not for the first time that law and order situation in Karachi was disturbed, adding, the incidents of violence and killings were also witnessed during the previous governments. Gilani also did not agree with the view that the law and order situation in Karachi was the failure of civil government and said, “Karachi is a mini Pakistan, where civil authorities are taking action. If this action was taken by the army, only then you could say that the government has failed.” To a question about the reported demand of MQM chief Altaf Hussain that the Prime Minister should resign, Gilani remarked, “he (Altaf) is our favorite and he can say anything.Prime Minister Gilani, replying to a question about price-hike, said the federal government in coordination with the provincial governments was taking measures to check price-hike, as both the provincial and the federal governments were responsible to control inflation and price-hike, which was owing to various factors. On the issue of corruption, the Prime Minister said that since he came into politics as a federal minister in 1985, he had witnessed various governments sent packing on the charges of corruption. But the dictatorial regimes could not prove such allegations and ruled the country for several years by taking along those politicians, who were part of the governments, and had been sent home on the charges of corruption, he added. The Prime Minister said, the election process was a big filter to hold accountability of politicians, as the people vote for the political parties on the basis of their manifestoes, adding, “it was the responsibility of masses not to elect the corrupt politicians.”