Gilani banks on House bailout

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s ruling coalition on Friday moved a resolution in parliament reposing “full confidence in the government’’ and asking “all institutions to act within constitutional limits’’. Allaying fears regarding the longevity of the PPP-led government was the return of president Asif Ali Zardari to Pakistan after a day-long visit to Dubai.
The resolution seeks to strengthen the government and would be put to vote on Monday when a supreme court bench, looking into the opening of graft cases against president Zardari, would resume its hearing in the case. This could be decisive for the government, as the court had last week threatened to disqualify prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani for dragging his feet on opening the cases.
The government has maintained that Zardari enjoys immunity as the head of state. The court has been ordering the reopening of cases since it threw out the national reconciliation ordinance (NRO) that granted immunity against prosecution to politicians as part of a power-sharing deal between former president Pervez Musharraf and Zardari’s slain wife, Benazir Bhutto in 2007.
Earlier, Gilani stirringly urged MPs to join hands “for strengthening democratic institutions and parliament’’ . He told parliament that he was not going “to beg to be rescued’’ , but maintained that anyone who would support his removal “would be setting back democracy in Pakistan’’ .
“Let us decide that either there will be democracy or there will be dictatorship in the country,” Gilani said, adding, “Mistakes of politicians should not be used to punish democracy.’’
Gilani is confident of having the resolution passed with a comfortable majority of 240 parliamentarians in a 340-member house. He played down his confrontation with the army saying his government was not against any institution . “But no other institution should dictate terms to parliament,” he said.
The government’s souring ties with the country’s military establishment degenerated when Gilani sacked the defence secretary, considered close to the army.
Earlier, Zardari returned from Dubai after a one-day personal trip that had led to speculation about the future of his government. His spokesman Farhatullah Babar said the president was not concerned about his political future. “Absolutely not. Why should he be? He is comfortable and perfectly all right,” said Babar. Separately, the Pakistani and British governments denied reports that Gilani had telephoned a top British diplomat expressing fears about to coup.