Coalition govt. not to let anyone derail democracy: PM

Islamabad: Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on Thursday said the Pakistan Peoples Party-led coalition government will not let any one to derail democracy in the country.”The coalition government is going to complete its tenure and is heading towards elections,” the Prime Minister told his cabinet members in a meeting held here at the PM House.

Prime Minister Ashraf said the government considers elections as “Amanat” (trust) which will be conducted in accordance with the Constitution.He pointed out the democratic government had made countless sacrifices for the parliamentary system, which he said would be further strengthened.He termed extremism, militancy and intolerance as big challenges and reiterated to fight out these evils.

The Cabinet condemned the current wave of terrorism and assassination of a senior minister Bashir Ahmed Bilour, killing of 21 Levy personnel and polio vaccinators in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh, the attack on Bacha Khan Airport Peshawar, the recent explosion at Mastung killing 19 pilgrims and the blast in Karachi killing four people and injuring 45.

The Prime Minister and the cabinet members offered fateha for those who lost their lives in terror incidents.

The Prime Minister said the sacrifices of Shaheeds would never go waste and the terrorists would face defeat.He mentioned that the country had lost 30,000 civilian men, women and children, more than 5000 armed forces personnel and billions of dollars in war against terrorism.He termed poverty and illiteracy as the major root causes of extremism and terrorism, and stressed that absorption of jobless people in gainful employment would greatly help preventing them falling into the trap of terrorists.

The Prime Minister said the government was implementing programmes such as Benazir Income Support Programme to address the issues of poverty and unemployment. He said notwithstanding the difficult international economic scenario and threats of terrorism, the country’s capital market was growing and KSE 100 Index had crossed 16,000 points, which showed corporate profitability and investors’ confidence.“This reflects our coalition government’s sincerity in eliminating terrorism and militancy from our soil. We have resolved to use all available resources to crush it, therefore, the terrorists have increased their attacks to destabilize the government,” he said.