PRISON BETTER THAN GOING TO THE GALLOWS PAKISTAI PRIME MINISTER

Prison better than going to the gallows’

BAHAWALPUR/VEHARI: Maintaining his defiant stance on the issue of writing a letter to Swiss authorities to reopen corruption cases also involving President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Thursday he would rather go to prison than write the letter.

In a way, he even toughened his position and deviating from a prepared speech at the fifth convocation of Islamia University in Bahawalpur, he asked the audience, mainly students, if he should write the letter despite the immunity given to president by the Constitution.

“If I write the letter it will be a violation of the Constitution, which is treason and carries the death penalty. If I don’t write, I will be convicted of contempt, the punishment for which is six months’ imprisonment,” he said. Some students sitting in front rows supported Mr Gilani, but several others behind them shouted that he should write the letter.

Mr Gilani then stated in plain words that it would be better to face six months’ imprisonment than to be sentenced to death for treason.

The prime minister is to appear in the Supreme Court on March 21 and report what he has done to implement its NRO verdict which requires him to write the letter.

Mr Gilani reiterated his stance at a public meeting he later addressed in Vehari. He stated categorically that he would not write the letter. “I am a PM not a peon. They consider me to be a peon.”

Speaking in Seraiki, he said he could give up politics but could never betray the PPP.

The prime minister asked the people in the gathering what they think he should do in this situation. The audience raised slogans in his support. Mr Gilani said he would convey peoples’ voice to the authorities concerned. Without directly naming the judiciary, he said ‘they’ were claming that democracy had been restored because of them. “They say that now you should take advice from us and write a letter to Swiss officials.”

He said the present government would be the first to complete its five-year term and to present its fifth budget in parliament. In the same manner, on March 17 President Zardari will become the first president to address a joint session of parliament for the fifth consecutive time.

The prime minister said his government did not want to revive the 1935 system of administrative units introduced during the colonial days. He said the demand for Bahawalpur province was aimed at delaying the formation of Seraiki province. If somebody wanted to meet aspirations of the people of Bahawalpur he should move a resolution in the Punjab Assembly but they (the PML-N) would never do that.