MULTAN - Former prime minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani declared on Saturday that the PPP could not become part of non-party election in light of vision of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto and therefore it nominated its candidate for the by-election in NA-149.
Addressing the participants of a function organized by senior PPP leader Habib Ullah Shakir in honour of notables of NA-149, Gilani added that the PPP boycotted 1985 non-party elections and got issued order from the court for the holding of these polls on party basis. He pointed out that the Punjab government did not hold local government elections during previous term. He said that the party workers had clear choice in terms of party candidate and they would stamp arrow on October 16.
Gilani claimed that there existed nothing like Nawaz-Zardari alliance, saying instead they were trying to protect constitution and institutions so that the government could complete its constitutional term. He said that Bhutto gave the nation 1973 constitution while he restored it in it into original form. He said that Bhutto made the country a nuclear power while Benazir Bhutto brought missile technology. “We feel proud that we gave media freedom and restored judiciary.

There was not even a single political prisoner in any jail during my regime,” he recalled.
He said that still 35,000 families living in NA-149 received funds under Benazir Income Support Programme while he approved development funds worth Rs19 billion as prime minister for this constituency. He declared that the October 18th Karachi public meeting would prove a historic event as it would be addressed by party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. He said that no mid-term election would take place in the country.