Headlines
Former Pakistan PMs quit party posts over anti-army remarks
Islamabad, June 18
Two former Pakistani prime
minister, Raja Pervez Ashraf and Yousuf Raza Gilani, have voluntarily
resigned from their positions in the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
Gilani
and Ashraf, who have been serving as the PPP's vice chairman and
general secretary respectively, decided to resign during the meeting of
party's Central Executive Council at the Bilawal House in Karachi on
Wednesday evening, Geo News reported.
According to sources within
the meeting, Raja Pervez Ashraf was critical of Asif Ali Zardari's
remarks which many saw as an attack on the country's military
establishment.
"It was not appropriate for the former president to criticise the armed forces of Pakistan," sources quoted him as saying.
"Everybody
holds (Pakistan army chief) Gen. Raheel Shairf in high regard and
leaders of political parties must not be in collision course with
national institutions," sources quoted Ashraf as saying.
Addressing
party workers in Peshawar on Tuesday, Zardari warned against character
assassination of the PPP, saying if they started doing the same then no
one would be spared, including army generals. "The army is our
institution," he added.
However, he did not specify what kind of character assassination he was referring to.
Gilani
told the meeting that the resignations were tendered so that Bilawal
could avoid difficulties in reorganisation of the party, sources added.
Gilani
served Pakistan as the 16th prime minister from March 25, 2008, until
his retroactive disqualification and ouster by the apex court of the
country on April 26, 2012.