Thaindian News

Islamabad, Jan 16 (IANS) Declining to clarify his remarks about the country’s army and intelligence chiefs over submission of statements to the apex court in the memo scandal, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Sunday that he was answerable to the parliament only and not to any individual.

Stating that he represented 180 million people of Pakistan, Gilani said: “The prime minister… is answerable to parliament.”

“I will not answer to a person. I am answerable to parliament,” the prime minister added while talking to reporters in Punjab province’s Vehari city, Geo News reported.

“What I said was not an accusation,” he added.

“We want there to be respect for the constitution, rule of law, and all institutions to work within their limits,” said Gilani. “I said just one thing, that rules and procedures were not followed. And that was the defence secretary’s fault, for which we removed him from his post.”

Gilani, however, said that the President’s House had rejected the news item saying Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani sought clarification or withdrawal of the statement issued by him.

He, however, declined to comment over arrival of Pakistani American businessman Mansoor Ijaz’s arrival in the country.

Last week, Gilani had criticised Kayani and Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the director general of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for filing court papers in the memo case.

Ijaz claims to have handed over a memo to the then US military chief Gen. Mike Mullen at the behest of the then Pakistan ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani and the Pakistani government to avert a likely military coup which President Asif Ali Zardari feared following Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden’s killing last May.

Pakistan’s Supreme Court has set up a three-member commission to investigate into the scandalous memo issue.