Durrani rules out electoral alliance with PPPP
Bureau Report

PESHAWAR—Federal minister for information Mohammad Ali Durrani Sunday ruled out any electoral alliance with PPPP and said that ruling PML could form alliance for next general elections with present allies.
He was responding to a question at Guest Hour programme of Peshawar Press Club here. Durrani rejected the reported statement of another federal minister Salim Saifullah Khan wherein he had confirmed the rumours about Musharraf contacts with PPPP and the league electoral alliance with PPPP and MQM in the next general election.
He said that the ruling party was in contacts with all political parties, adding that PML (Q) was not going to strike any deal with Benazir Bhutto for next election. “Let me make it clear that the politics of deals is the story of past,” Durrani claimed.
The minister said that the reputation and public acceptance which the PML government had earned during the past four years while remaining in power was the asset of the league on the strength of which it would plunge into coming election. “We can not give any share to PPPP in this asset,” Durrani said, adding that president Musharraf would start a province wide visit of NWFP from Jan 1, 07, during which he would address public meetings in different parts to take people into confidence on the reforms agenda present government had initiated.
About Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai’s allegations on Pakistan, he said that such kind of irresponsible statements did not deserve him because he had spent years in Pakistan and apart from this Pakistan had always supported Afghanistan and its cause. He said that such statements would be counter productive for him, as his own people would not believe in his statements.
The minister said that President Musharraf himself moved Supreme Court against what he called the un-Islamic and unconstitutional Hassba Bill passed by the NWFP Assembly, which showed the ruling league and President Musharraf seriousness as to how much they believed in the independent status of institutions. If MMA and any other political party have any objection on Women Protection Bill, they should have referred the case to Supreme Court instead of resorting to the politics of confrontation and giving threats to resign parliament, he opined. He said that all opposition parties had divided on WPB, saying ARD no more existed as united force while rifts had also occurred in the two major components of MMA, JUI-F and JI.
Referring to the steps being taken for the welfare of the women, he said that government had increased the representation of women in parliament and also in district government, saying the recently passed Women Protection Bill showed government sincerity towards the welfare of the female lot of the society.
About Intelligence Bureau (IB) officials’ involvement in bomb blast to blow up CM secretariat, he said Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani overreacted to this matter because the inquiry reports had rejected the earlier reports of huge explosive. “It was just a like a fire cracker but Akram Khan Durrani reacted like Qazi Hussain Ahmad instead of showing political shrewdness like his leader Maulana Fazalur Rehman,” the minister claimed.
Durrani denied the use of any kind of pressure on media to kill and downplay the news related to the arrest of IB official, Tufail, while he was planting explosive near CM secretariat. “It is on the record that not a single party in Pakistan polled vote against Women Protection Bill. If MMA or any other party had any objections on the bill it should resort to court instead of hurling resignation threat and resorting to the politics of agitation,” he remarked.
He said that government believed in the empowerment of people and therefore it had initiated several projects, which would directly benefit the poor masses of the country. Durrani added that government was likely to initiate a project for providing employment opportunities to the people and in this regard government had set a side Rs110 billion, which would be given as loan to any person who wanted to start his own business. “50 percent of the interest incurs on the loan would be paid by the government,” the minister revealed.