Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani: 'There can be no state within a
state'
Conspirators are
plotting to bring down Pakistan's civilian government, Prime
Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said.
Without specifically blaming the military, he said it was
accountable to parliament and no institution could be a state within
a state.
His government is struggling with a memo scandal that has forced
the resignation of the Pakistani ambassador to the US and threatens
the president.
The leaked memo allegedly asked for US help to prevent a military
takeover.
Correspondents are describing Mr Gilani's tirade as an
unprecedented attack by a civilian leader on Pakistan's powerful
military.
"I want to make it clear today that conspiracies are being
hatched here to pack up the elected government," the prime minister
said in a speech at the National Arts Gallery in Islamabad.
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“Start Quote
Nobody is above the law, all the
institutions are subservient to the parliament”
Yousuf Raza Gilani
Pakistan Prime Minister
"But we will continue to fight for the
rights of people of Pakistan whether or not we remain in the
government."
Later, in parliament, he said: "There can't be a state within the
state. They have to be answerable to this parliament."
The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says there has always been an
impression in Pakistan that the powerful military and its
intelligence services are a state within the state.
But successive military and civilian rulers have kept up the
appearance that the military is a subordinate institution of the
state. Mr Gilani's defiant comments and tough language throw the
issue open to debate, our correspondent says.
Bin Laden raid
Pakistan's President, Asif Ali Zardari, has recently returned to
the country after seeking medical treatment in Dubai. The
56-year-old denies any role in the memo.
His illness and the scandal surrounding the memo have led to
speculation that he might be forced out of office.
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Analysis
M Ilyas Khan
BBC News, Islamabad
Prime Minister Gilani made his unprecedented remarks -
perhaps his most direct attack on the military - in the context
of Osama Bin Laden's killing. He said the commission he set up
to investigate how Bin Laden was able to live in Pakistan
undetected for six years, had, under military influence, now
come around to investigating his own government for issuing
visas to alleged US agents who tracked down Bin Laden.
Mr Gilani said the civilian government provided a defence to
the military against international pressure after Bin Laden's
killing.
Also, his government doubled the salaries of the soldiers
despite financial constraints to acknowledge their sacrifices.
But, he said: "they cannot be a state within the state. They
have to be answerable to this parliament".
Mr Gilani's outburst is indicative of the pressure the
military is reportedly exerting on his government over the memo
scandal.
It also indicates that the government has decided to confront
the military on this issue, a move which no civilian government
has made in Pakistan before.
Pakistan's Supreme Court has opened a
hearing into the memo and demanded a reply from the president.
Tensions are high between the civilian government, which has
ruled since elections in February 2008, and Pakistan's powerful
military and intelligence services, after US forces killed Osama Bin
Laden in Abbottabad in May. The army was not told about the raid in
advance.
Mr Gilani also referred to the controversy over the late al-Qaeda
leader, querying how he had managed to get into Pakistan and live
there for six years apparently undetected.
He reminded parliament that his government had given "solid
support" to the army and its intelligence agency, the ISI, following
the raid, which deeply embarrassed the military.
A strike by Nato forces on a Pakistani border post in November
killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. This has caused outrage in Pakistan
and made it more difficult for the civilian government to defend its
policy of co-operation with the United States.
The army has ruled Pakistan for much of its history and has
carried out three coups.
Some analysts have speculated that the "memogate" affair is a
conspiracy by the army to embarrass the government.
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