Prime Minister of Pakistan, Yusuf Raza Gilani, spoke to Al Jazeera on Saturday, and addressed a wide variety of issues. Starting with the pending Contempt of Court charges against him, Gilani said that was for the Court to decide but he had confidence in his lawyers. He however did say that he would stand down from the Office of Prime Minister if he is convicted. Gilani is accused of not obeying the laws of the National Reconciliation Ordnance (NRO) that require the reopening of corruption cases against the current President, Asif Zardari.
Gilani tried to sidestep the question of whether President Zardari was "clean" or not. He answered vaguely, saying that Zardari had fought all the cases opened against him and that they were politically motivated. The PM further claimed that President Zardari has immunity from any charges as long as he is President, a claim disputed by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
The Prime Minister stuck to the official Pakistani line on the Osama bin Laden incident, maintaining that it was a failure on the part of global intelligence agencies, not just the Pakistanis. Addressing the US drone attacks on Pakistani soil, Gilani said that these actions limited the Pakistan government's ability to maneuver politically with the tribes in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). He tried to imply that the drones were operating from Pakistani soil without permission from his government. When asked about the re-opening of NATO supply routes following a US attack on Pakistani troops back in November, Gilani said that the decision was in the hands of the parliament. He also declared that the Pakistani army was not supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan. He also reiterated his commitment to improving relationships with India.
Speaking on religious extremism, Gilani defended his opposition to amendments to Pakistan's controversial blasphemy laws, saying that the laws themselves were not bad, but the misuse of the laws needed to be prevented. He tried to convince the interviewer that minorities were protected in Pakistan and had a voice. The assurances would seem hollow though, given that, on the day before the interview the Lahore Bar Association in Punjab decided to ban food and beverage products manufactured by a company owned by members of the minority Ahmadiyya community.
Towards the end of the interview, Gilani was asked for just one concrete example of what his government had done to improve the lives of the people. He tried to give an example of the "Benazir Income Support Program (BISP)" which provided aid to poor families. Unfortunately, even in that case, independent analyses showed that the disbursement of the support was heavily slanted towards areas that tended to support the Prime Minister's party, the Pakistan People's Party (PPP).
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