Zardari, Gilani relations sour: Report

All is not well between Pakistan’s top two leaders with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani taking exception to “increasing interference” by President Asif Ali Zardari in the day-to-day running of the
government, a media report said on Tuesday (December 30).

“Gilani is running out of patience over the increasing interference of the presidency in the day-to-day running of the government,” the News reported.

Quoting informed sources, the daily said that the Prime Minister “is in a defiant mood and wants to run the government as the real chief executive” due to which differences have cropped up between the two top offices in the country.

The paper pointed a case wherein Gilani reportedly raised a “hue and cry” over British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s joint press conference with Zardari during the former’s recent visit to Pakistan.

According to Gilani, the protocol demanded that such a press conference should have been addressed by the two prime ministers.

Farhatullah Babar, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) spokesman and media adviser to the president, however, told the daily that the reports of a rift between the presidency and the prime minister’s office were mere speculation.

“I contradict all such reports,” Babar was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, a presidential spokesperson also dismissed such reports as “malicious and baseless” saying all constitutional institutions are functioning according to the mandate given to them and the President and Prime Minister will continue to play their role as provided in the constitution.

(Agencies)

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