President Zardari: Elections will be held on time at all costs

Addressing a mammoth gathering on the occasion of 5th martyrdom anniversary of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh‚ the President said all arrangements have been completed to hold free‚ fair and transparent elections

President Asif Ali Zardari has assured that elections will be held on time at all costs. Addressing a mammoth gathering on the occasion of 5th martyrdom anniversary of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh on Thursday‚ he said the political parties should not have any concerns about the holding of next general elections. We will ensure transparent elections the way we ousted a dictator. He said all arrangements have been completed to hold free‚ fair and transparent elections. For this very purpose‚ we have put in place an independent election commission besides legislation has also been done to install a consensus caretaker setup. Under this legislation‚ the government and the opposition parties will hold negotiations for a joint candidate for the slot of the caretaker prime minister. This caretaker setup will remain in power for two or three months with the mandate of only holding elections. President Zardari said his party has never committed any excess against anybody nor will it allow commit excesses against anybody. He said we introduced politics of reconciliation to address all the problems. Following the martyrdom of Benazir Bhutto‚ there was a threat of civil war but we raised the slogan of 'Pakistan Khapay' [Long Live Pakistan] and strengthened the parliament. We took revenge of the martyrdom of Benazir Bhutto by strengthening the parliament and democracy. The president said Pakistan People's Party has always pursued the politics of principles. He said Asghar Khan case has exposed the real faces of our opponents. History will continue to unmask their faces in future as well. He said we did not take revenge from anybody but left it to the history to do the same. President Zardari said the present PPP government gave full independence to all sections of the society including the media. There was no political prisoner in the present government except PPP's own leader Hamid Saeed Kazmi. We have always demonstrated tolerance and harmony because it is the best course to silence the opponent forces. President Zardari said we will take along all the political forces. He said reconciliation policy was started by Madar-e-Jamhooriat Nusrat Bhutto when Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was in jail and she took along all the political forces on board to wage struggle against dictator General Ziaul Haq. The President said we have given a new criteria of tolerance and the coming political forces will have to meet this criteria. He said the time will prove that we have done the right job. He said all the political forces want to save democracy. He said there are political forces in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa‚ Balochistan and Punjab other than PPP who are determined to take forward democracy. He said we will not allow to run Egypt like model in Pakistan. He invited all political forces to contest elections.