By NNN-APP
Washington : PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari has said his party’s coalition with PML (N) would bring stability to Pakistan and pledged to strive for socio-economic development of the masses as well as a strong civil society to carve out for the nation “a tomorrow better than any of the yesterdays.”
Articulating his vision for a “new progressive Pakistan,” the leader of the largest political party acknowledged the process of reformation would be complex and long but expressed a firm determination to succeed.
In an article, Zardari described Monday, the first day of the new parliament, as “momentous day for the Pakistani people” and a day of triumph for former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, who sacrificed her life for her beliefs and her country.
“This was the day of her triumph, the vindication of her long battle for the restoration of democracy,” he wrote an article posted by the CNN.
The PPP and the party of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, he said, have joined to form a “broad-based, democratic, liberal government in Pakistan—an umbrella of reconciliation and consensus.”
The new prime minister, from the PPP, will be announced within the next few days, he added.
Commenting on apprehensions that “a coalition government would lack the necessary strength to tackle Pakistan’s myriad problems,” Zardari voiced the confidence that “cooperation between the country’s biggest political parties, representing an overwhelming majority of the people, would bring greater stability than one-man rule.”
“Together, the PPP and PML-N will be able to build a strong civil society,” he said, adding it will go a long way to erasing the scars of militancy.
“We will focus on providing education and employment at the grassroots levels so the country’s youth can play an integral role in building a strong national economy.”
In agreeing to form a coalition government Sharif and he have responded to the mandate given by the people of Pakistan in the February 18 election, Zardari wrote, noting that the people of Pakistan no longer want to live under dictatorship.
“The people of Pakistan want an end to terrorism and violence and wish to join the rest of the modern world in the pursuit of peace and prosperity,” he observed.
He stressed the people “want to restore the supremacy of the people’s house, the National Assembly” and free it from the sword of a “marginal presidency with inflated, unconstitutional authority.”
Zardari wrote Pakistan’s political leaders and people have suffered from the politics of personal destruction.
“We have been battered by dictatorship; we have seen civil society taken apart and a free and independent judiciary destroyed. We have seen international assistance, secured in the name of fighting terrorism, diverted towards making Pakistan’s affluent few richer”.
“We have seen progress on education, health and women’s rights stopped and reversed. But now, with renewed confidence in democratic parties like the PPP and PML-N, it is time for the rebirth of a democratic, vital and progressive Pakistan.”
On addressing the situation in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, Zardari, also a former senator, emphasized that the key to improving security there is ensuring local population’s participation in the economic development and the broader civil society.