Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani said on Saturday the people would not vote for leaders working with a “foreign agenda”. He told a press conference that the government, despite strong reservations from the Pakistan Muslim League (PML), introduced the National Reconciliation Ordinance to develop a peaceful atmosphere during the polls. In a thinly veiled criticism of Pakistan People’s Party Chairwoman Benazir Bhutto, he said that those who were blaming the PML leadership and trying to protect the dictatorship in Pakistan could not become a part of the reconciliation process. He warned ‘life-time chairpersons’ of political parties that the people would prefer the PML’s prosperous Pakistan agenda to their foreign agenda.
Durrani rejected BenazirÂ’s demand that the government allow foreign experts to investigate the Karachi bombing of October 18.
If the PPP didn’t change its policies then it would not be able to find candidates nor voters in the polls, he said. Referring to Benazir’s statement that terrorists had never attacked PML President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain or Federal Religious Minister Ejazul Haq, he said Benazir should not give a future line of action to terrorists. “The people will vote for those leaders who promote the culture of tolerance,” he said. “The PML and its allies will contest the polls on the basis of their performance,” he said.