LHR 15-04-2012_Layout 1 4/15/2012 1:38 AM Page 1
Rs 22.00 Vol ii no 288 22 pages Lahore edition
Sunday, 15 april, 2012 Jamadi-ul-awal 22, 1433
Seraiki province to be carved out before elections: Zardari
Tragedy visiTs Hazara sHias again QUETTA AgEnciES
President says PM Gilani’s son falsely implicated in drug case
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MULTAN
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AgEnciES
ReSiDenT Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday said the Seraiki province would be carved out before the next general elections. in a meeting with Pakistan People’s Party workers from Multan, he said time was ripe for the formation of a new province for the people of south Punjab, adding that he would visit every nook and corner of the south Punjab in a bid to carve out a Seraiki province. He said that some people were opposing the new province for their vested interests, but they would have to face defeat. He said the creation of a new province was the voice of the downtrodden people who had been facing tremendous problems for a long time. Regarding the much hyped ephedrine case, he said PM’s son Ali Musa Gilani was falsely implicated in the drug case. He said he had come to Multan to express solidarity with Yousaf Raza Gilani. Zardari said he had voluntarily ceded his powers, while the Punjab chief minister was holding several ministries with himself. He said the PPP was able to form its government in Punjab but it let the PML-n to do
so. President Asif Ali Zardari called upon Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani to immediately start consultative process with all political parties with a view to make a separate Seraiki province. “The Seraiki province will be made by the present government this year,” he said. President’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar said the president said it was not politics, but Seraiki province was meant to respect and honour the aspiration of the people of south Punjab. He said the people of the area had every right to demand their own province and the party leadership respected their wishes and aspirations. earlier, the president also had meetings with parliamentarians belonging to south Punjab and with women office bearers of PPP belonging to Multan, Khanewal, Vehari and Lodhran districts. During his meetings, the president said he felt great pleasure to be present among the representatives of the south Punjab and he would be regularly visiting the belt in the future also. The president called upon the parliamentarians to highlight various achievements of the government to the people so that negative propaganda could automatically be countered.
QUETTA: Shia men bury the victims of sectarian violence at a local graveyard. Seven Shia Muslims were shot dead in two separate drive-by shootings on Saturday. afp
Opponents of Seraiki provinces want to oust me, says Gilani MUZAFFARGARH AgEnciES
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Saturday said the solution of all problems faced by the people of south Punjab rested in the formation of a Seraiki province, claiming that the opponents of the new province wanted to oust him. Addressing a public gathering in Alipur area of Muzaffargarh district where he inaugurated a gas supply project completed at a cost of Rs 142 billion, Gilani said problems of the Seraiki region could not be addressed
unless a chief minister from the area was put in place. He said he was offered to change loyalties while in jail, but he ruled out any power that lacked support of the people. He emphasised that politics of revenge had been buried forever, adding that the government had completed its four year with the support of people and would also complete its tenure and present the fifth budget to relief the masses. The prime minister said the next budget of the democratically elected Continued on page 04
Gunmen on Saturday shot dead 10 Shia Muslims in two separate incidents of sectarian violence in the troubled Balochistan province, police said. The drive-by shootings took place in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan. At least seven of those killed belonged to the Hazara community. “Two gunmen riding a motorbike opened fire on a taxi cab killing seven Shias and wounding another person,” local police official Ameer Muhammad Dasti told AFP. The injured person also succumbed to his injuries at a hospital. The deceased belonged to the Hazara community and hailed from the same family. He said in the second incident, two gunmen standing on a roadside shot dead two Shias, who passed . Continued on page 04