JI slates Bilawal seated with heads of states

Lahore: The Foreign Affairs wing of the Jamaat e Islami has taken strong exception to the seating of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari along with the heads of the State at the G- 8 Summit, and said it was against moral, diplomatic and international norms.

A statement issued by the JI foreign affairs wing on Thursday, said that this step of President Zardari had made the country a laughing stock. It said the foreign journalists and diplomats were raising a genuine question as to under what law or rule, President Zardari had made his son Bilawal to be seated amidst the heads of states.

The statement said that the G- 8 summit was an excellent opportunity for restoring the image of the Pakistan, however, President Zardari had provided the world media another excuse to ridicule this country.
It pointed out that even in the past, President Zardari had made Bilawal Zardari to be seated alongside him at the Makkah and Tehran conferences while the Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar had to take her seat in the second row. It asked President Zardari if any other head of state or government had ever taken along his children
not holding government offices, at such international moots.

It also said there was no logic even in the argument that Bilawal was attending as head of the PPP, because it was not a meeting of party heads. It was the G. 8 summit and only the heads of the member states were attending the conference.

The statement said that Pakistan was a democratic state and President Zardari should not follow in the footprints of dictators like Hosni Mobarak and Bin Ali.