Gilani blames Zia, Musharraf regimes for rampant corruption in Pakistan

Islamabad, Jun.16 (ANI): Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has held the previous military regimes of General Ziaul Haq and General Pervez Musharraf for the rampant corruption in the country.

Speaking at the National Defence University (NDU) here, though Gilani neither named Haq or Musharraf, he said that the "democratic governments have been fired under the pretext of corruption since 1958, however, no dictator was made accountable for his misdoings."

Following his speech on the topic "My Vision of Pakistan", Gilani was bombarded with questions which mainly dealt with wide spread corruption in the country.

Responding to a question he said that the government would soon introduce a bill in Parliament for across the board accountability.

"It is for the first time in the country's history that offices of both the leader of the opposition and the chairmanship of Public Accounts Committee have been given to the opposition. Thus we have entrusted the process of accountability to the opposition," The News quoted Gilani, as saying.

Answering a question regarding claims that Islamabad was acting under the US' influence as far as launching an offensive against militants was concerned, Gilani said as a sovereign country it was for Pakistan to decide when and where it wants to initiate a military operation against militants.

"We don't take dictatorship from the US, or for that matter from any foreign country. The time for accepting demands "to do more" has disappeared. Rather, now that Pakistan has achieved great successes in the fight against terrorism, it is for the world powers to do more in extending aid to Pakistan," he said. (ANI)