LAHORE - Defending the political office of President Asif Ali Zardari, Federal Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira said visiting Presidency was not limited to Pakistan People’s Party workers only but other leaders (politicians) also come there.

“We will have no objection if the PML-N leaders are among the visitors of Presidency,” he said, while talking to the media at the Governor’s House Saturday. The minister said the President was a part of the Parliament and the office was also a political one while the president himself was a politician whose conduct in the office was, however, “above politics”.
He brought an analogy between the office of the National Assembly speaker and the president to convince that both are political figures but act neutrally in the office.
To a question on awarding Tamgha-e-Jamhooriat to General (r) Alam Beg, he said the honour was awarded to army chief and not Beg.
He said that the Asghar Khan case verdict vindicates the PPP stance on agencies role in keeping the party away from power.
To a question, he vowed to ensure transparent investigation by the FIA after the court verdict. He said that provinces had been given additional Rs900billion and now the question was about the utilising capacity of the provinces of this amount.
About the construction of Kalabagh Dam, Kaira said, consensus among all provinces was a prerequisite and asked for saving time for construction of other dams instead of wasting time on the debate on Kalabagh Dam. The minister said the government believed in free media and all-out efforts were being made to ensure better working atmosphere for the journalists.
Kaira was surprised at the statement of PML-N and as to why such reaction surfaced when leaders of this party were beneficiary in the scam. However, he clarified that the PPP did not name anyone since it did not go to the Supreme Court over this issue.