ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari has said the 17th Amendment will be repealed next month. ‘We always wanted to do away with the 17th Amendment, but we wanted to do it through a unanimous decision because the 1973 Constitution was also approved unanimously,’ the president said in an interview with a private TV channel. 

He said his legal team was of the opinion that the president enjoyed immunity and his eligibility could not be challenged in any court. His eligibility as a candidate for the post of president, he said, had not been challenged even by the other contenders, Justice (retd) Saeed-uz-Zaman Siddiqui and Mushahid Hussain Syed. 

President Zardari said his Pakistan People’s Party had always been a target of attacks, before and during the tenure of Pervez Musharraf, but even from jails, PPP leaders continued the struggle to reach the Presidency. 

About the Balochistan package, he said it was a good beginning for the development of the province, despite complaints from some quarters.
 
Answering a question about the demand for trial of Gen Musharraf, he said he would let the court decide about that. 

The president said that police, FIA and other departments were investigating the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and the culprits would be punished.

He said that failure of ‘peace deals’ had led to the military operations in Swat and Waziristan. He also said that the United States was considering reviewing its policy on drone attacks, which would enable Pakistan to get drone technology and take its own decision about attacks.
 
About US-Taliban negotiations, he said: 'We are getting this news from the media and Pakistan has not been taken on board.’ 

He said the war against terrorism was now being considered as Pakistan’s own war.

The president said that judges, lawyers and witnesses used to come from Rawalpindi to the Attock jail where cases against him were heard. ‘All prisoners serving life-imprisonment along with him were released before him.’

About relations with coalition partners, he said that differences of opinion were part of democracy. ‘We want to take along all our allies, including the MQM and ANP.’ 

About the demand for renaming the NWFP as Pakhtunkhwa, the president said the nation would soon hear good news in this regard. 

He said he was thankful to PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif for saying that he would stop the way of non-democratic forces. ‘Both Mr Sharif and I want to strengthen the democratic process in the country.’
 
In reply to a question about reinstatement of judges, the president said that if the judiciary was restored because of public pressure then he also was part of the masses. He said he wanted restoration of entire judiciary and not reinstatement of only Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. 

About corruption charges against the government, the president said that with the Public Accounts Committee led by the leader of opposition in the National Assembly and in the presence of independent judiciary everything would be open and clear and people would know the facts.

Answering a question about media criticism, President Zardari said that because of the influence of public relations companies and other factors even the foreign media was not completely independent and neutral. ‘Pakistani media will grow with the passage of time. We will exhibit tolerance in this regard.’
 
About reservations expressed by the MQM over the future of local bodies, the president said that a final decision would be taken by the prime minister and four chief ministers. —APP