NEW YORK, Oct 5: Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali said on Sunday that there was no agreement between him and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal over the president’s uniform.
“The president earned the uniform himself. He will take it off when he wants,” he said in an interview with Dawn here.
“The president is very clear about it. If there was an agreement then he (the president) would abide by it,” Mr Jamali said. “But there was no agreement,” he hastened to add.
When referred to MMA vice-president Qazi Husain Ahmed’s statement that there was an agreement on the president’s taking off the uniform in December, 2004, he said: “They have raised the issue at several meetings but nothing was signed.”
As regards the political impasse with the Pakistan People’s Party and Pakistan Muslim League-N, the prime minister said: “I have made efforts in good faith. I went to the abode of PPP leader Amin Fahim and PML-N leader Javed Hashmi, and they committed themselves to a dialogue, but they never turned up.”
However, he said the MMA had kept their commitment with him for a continued dialogue.
Asked about the US support for his government and democracy in Pakistan, he said: “The very fact that I was invited to meet Mr Bush is a testimony to the fact that the US supports democratic setup in Pakistan.”
As regards the question of sending Pakistani troops to Iraq in the face of opposition in Pakistan’s parliament, Mr Jamali said nothing was impossible. “We have to take the elected representatives of the people into confidence, and if it is in the national interest, we can do it.”
Mr Jamali stressed: “We have a positive approach towards the Iraqi issue. People of Iraq have suffered. We want to help them. They are a Muslim nation so when the Iraqi people want us to help we will consider it.”
He pointed out that he had taken Pakistani parliamentarians into confidence about opening of talks with Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee and they agreed (to the proposition).
APP adds:
Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said here on Sunday that Prime Minister Jamali clearly conveyed Pakistan’s standpoint on various issues during his meetings at White House, Pentagon and Capitol Hill.
He described Mr Jamali’s talks with the US leadership as “very successful” and “meaningful”.
He said the prime minister took up the issue of Kashmir with Mr Bush and urged him to exert pressure on India to restart dialogue.
He also clarified that Pakistan had not been supporting any group against the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and that it was keen to see success of his government.
The prime minister, he said, also hoped that the Karzai government would succeed in resolving its problems.
He said Mr Jamali was scheduled to meet Pakistani community in Chicago when he visits the state.