VEHARI: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Sunday that he was the elected premier of 180 million people and was answerable only to parliament.
Talking to reporters at the residence of PPP’s late MNA Azeem Daultana in Luddan town, he said that under the Constitution he was answerable to parliament and not to any individual.
“According to the Constitution, the prime minister, ministers and ministers of state are all answerable to parliament. I am not answerable to any individual ... whenever the parliament wants, I will present my point of view,” Mr Gilani said while answering a question about a news report that Chief of the Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani had asked President Asif Ali Zardari during a meeting on Saturday to persuade the prime minister to take back the remarks he had made about the army chief for directly submitting his reply to the Supreme Court in the memo case.
The prime minister said the presidency had already rejected the foreign news agency’s report that any such demand had been made by the army chief.
He said all state institutions needed to work within their respective ambit.
The prime minister said he represented the people of Pakistan and had always said that parliament would complete its five-year term because it had been elected by the people.
He said the prime minister completing his term was not an important matter because a procedure was already there to bring in a new prime minister.
He said he had never said that he himself would complete the tenure, adding that he had always stressed that the parliament should stay for five years.
“We will welcome if anyone wants to bring in a new prime minister in accordance with the Constitution,” Mr Gilani said.
Answering a question, he said the Senate elections would be held on time.
Mr Gilani offered condolences to relatives of the late MNA Azeem Daultana and said he was a follower of Bhuttoism and a great asset of the party.
Mr Daultana died last week in a road accident. He was a parliamentary secretary for information and broadcasting. The prime minister lauded the services rendered by him for the people of his constituency and the party.
Mr Gilani was accompanied by Khursheed Shah, Qamar Zaman Kaira, Faisal Karim Kundi and Manzoor Wattoo.
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