|
Islamabad: Yousuf Raza Gilani, candidate of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and its partners for the office of prime minister, said on Sunday that the coalition government would pursue a common agenda to steer the country out of the crisis confronting it.
He was speaking to reporters after filing his nomination with the secretariat of the National Assembly, which is to meet today afternoon to elect a prime minister.
The candidate of the former ruling Pakistan Muslim League party, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, also entered the race, after the combined opposition candidate Farooq Sattar, parliamentary leader of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), withdrew Saturday in favour of the PPP nominee.
Ensure freedom
Gilani said the majority coalition would protect the 1973 constitution, ensure freedom of judiciary and media, strengthen democracy and consolidate democratic institutions.
He expressed the confidence that the incoming government would implement the 2006 charter of democracy and establish the sovereignty of the parliament representing the will of the people of the country.
Paying tribute to slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, he said the unfolding change in the country was the result of her supreme sacrifice for the cause of democracy.
Earlier before submitting the nomination papers, Gilani said he would serve in the top slot as long as the party would want him to shoulder the responsibility
Gilani also thanked the MQM and its self-exiled leader Altaf Hussain, who announced "unconditional" withdrawal of the party's candidate Saturday following a PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari's telephone conversation with him.
With more than 20 MQM legislators now certain to support the candidate of the PPP-led coalition, Gilani is expected to secure well over 249 votes polled four days ago by PPP's Fahmida Mirza, who was elected first woman speaker of the National Assembly.
A central MQM leader and former minister Babar Ghauri told the media that so far there had been no discussion with the PPP on government formation.
Yousuf Raza Gilani, 58-year-old politician from Punjab province set to become Pakistan's new prime minister, spent about four and a half years in jail during the government of President Pervez Musharraf.
Born in 1950 at Multan in southern area of the country's largest Punjab province, Gilani was the Speaker of the National Assembly during the 1993-1994 second government of slain former prime minister and PPP leader Benazir Bhutto.
He was arrested after Musharraf's coup in 1999 by the National Accountability Bureau on charges he unlawfully recruited hundreds of people to jobs in the departments of the National Assembly while he was speaker and made use of official transport and other facilities beyond entitlement.
Gilani was convicted and jailed by an accountability court but was later released on bail by a high court. The charges against him were finally quashed recently under an amnesty given to holders of public offices under a national conciliation ordinance issued by Musharraf in October last year.
He holds a Masters degree in journalism from the Punjab University.
Before joining the PPP in 1988, he served in 1985 as housing minister under then prime minister Mohammad Khan Junejo, who was given the post by military ruler General Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq after the elections held without participation of political parties.
In the 1988 party-based general elections held after Zia-ul-Haq's death in a plane crash, Gilani won a seat in the National Assembly from Multan and was made minister by Bhutto in her cabinet.
The politician, scion of a modest land-owning family, served in 1990 in a caretaker cabinet after the dismissal of the first Benazir Bhutto government.
In 1993, he was elected to the National Assembly in the general elections and became speaker of the National Assembly when as PPP candidate he defeated Gohur Ayub Khan, son of late Field Marshal Ayub Khan, in the election to the top parliamentary office.
He was the Speaker when the second Benazir Bhutto government was dismissed in 1996 by then president Farooq Ahmad Leghari, a friend-turned-foe of the PPP leader.
Gilani's family consists of his wife, three sons and a daughter.
|
