Zardari says no one asked him to quit

President Zardari rejected a perception that there is a clash between the government and the judiciary. — Reuters photo

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari has said all but one PPP leaders were against holding a rally at Rawalpindi’s Liaquat Bagh, where Benazir Bhutto was assassinated on Dec 27, 2007.
In an interview to a private TV channel, the president stopped short of naming the leader who had insisted on going ahead with the rally. (A part of the interview was published in Saturday’s Dawn).
(According to Reuters, President Zardari said leaving office was not an option and that no one had asked him to resign, responding to speculation that the military wanted his departure.
“No one has asked for it yet. If someone does, I’ll tell you,” Mr Zardari, who appeared in good spirits after medical treatment in Dubai last month, said in the pre-recorded interview. When asked if ‘escape’ was an option for him, Mr Zardari replied: “Why should it be?”)
When asked about the statement made by him at the first anniversary of Benazir’s assassination that he knew about the killers, Mr Zardari said all the Mehsuds were not killers and there was a small group.
“But the real face is somewhere else and that is why I requested the UN to investigate the murder. But I would say that the UN has not been fair with us.”
Reverting to the rally, Mr Zardari recalled: “I discussed the matter with BB Shaheed at the dining table in the presence of our children and requested her not to attend the Rawalpindi rally; everybody was against attending the rally by her. But she would not listen to anybody and insisted on responding to the demand for holding the rally.”
Mr Zardari said: “It was said — just leave us and don’t threaten us with the consequences of law and order situation in Rawalpindi.”
He said the last persons to be with Benazir Bhutto were her driver, Farhatullah Babar, Rehman Malik and Dr Babar Awan.
“None of them was responsible for security of the rally in Rawalpindi. In fact Rehman Malik opposed holding the rally,” he said, adding: “We had even offered BB Shaheed that I would attend the rallies; the enemies were very clever and they would not attack me because it would strengthen BB.”
NATO ATTACK: About the harsh decisions taken after the Nato attach on the Salala post, Mr Zardari said the credit of taking the decisions of not attending the Bonn conference on Afghanistan, getting the Shamsi airbase vacated from US troops and stopping Nato supplies went to the parliament.
“The presidency is born out of the parliament and restoration of Nato supplies will be decided by parliament and even if it is to be made in a joint session of the parliament,” he said, adding that a date for the joint session would be decided by the prime minister.
In reply to a question about the reopening of NRO cases, Mr Zardari said he believed it would be a “trial of the dead; it will be like trial of BB’s grave”.
He rejected a perception that there was a clash between the government and the judiciary, but said his former minister for religious affairs Hamid Saeed Kazmi had been behind bars for two years, but the law said that if anybody was not convicted for two years the bail should be granted.
“I find him (Mr Kazmi) innocent, but the issue is how the lower court will grant bail when the whole case has been forwarded from the top,” he said, adding that cases were to be initiated from the lower courts, but “it is a new fashion now that things are coming other way round.”
About the decision of former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi to quit the PPP and join the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf, the president said Mr Qureshi was not his friend but a political co-worker. “He left (PPP) only because he could not bear to see Mr (Yousuf Raza) Gilani as the prime minister.”
About Mr Qureshi’s allegation that the country’s nuclear programme is not safe in the hands of President Zardari, he said: “The nuclear programme is not in my (Mr Zardari) hands; it was given to the parliament two years ago.”
He said Imran Khan had money; he had a donor-based background starting with social work and now it was a donor-based politics.
“It is good to have more players in politics, but I have only one objection: he (Imran) is talking of bringing about a change with 96 per cent old faces, but when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto came in he brought and introduced new faces. This is strange. How could old faces who have crossed five-six parties bring about any change?”
Mr Zardari, who is also Co-Chairman of the PPP, expressed confidence that Aitzaz Ahsan would not leave the party because he would not have the same level of respect as he enjoyed in the People’s Party.
In reply to a question about the respect being given to Javed Hashmi in the PTI, he said it was short-lived and fact was that he was not getting the due respect where he was.
President Zardari supported the idea of a Seraiki province but did not talk about Hazara province. He only said the matter could be discussed with the Awami National Party, a coalition partner of the PPP at the centre.
About the timing of Senate elections, he said the matter had yet to be discussed with coalition parties and the same applied to the general election.
The president said Pakistan had a bright future and the greatest asset of the country was its “human resource”. “We have commerce-wise financially great future and when my children will be in the field, Pakistan will be a great nation.”