Ex-PM Yousaf Raza Gilani denies issuing illegal visas to Americans

MULTAN: Former PM and PPP senior leader Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani on Tuesday categorically denied issuing illegal visas to the Americans for conducting operation against Osama Bin Laden.

Talking to The News here, Gilani said Hussain Haqqani was not such an important person to comment on his sayings. The PPP government did not issue visas to the Americans for Pakistan, he added.

The ex-PM said the PPP had distanced itself from Haqqani a long time ago, adding that the PPP government had called him back to Pakistan and sought his resignation when Memogate scandal revealed against him. His matter was sent to Parliamentary National Security Committee head by Senator Raza Rabbani, he maintained.

Yousaf Raza Gilani said the PPP government had constituted a judicial commission on the Memogate but its findings were not made public. He demanded to make the judicial commission’s findings public.

He claimed the PPP government did not allow Haqqani to leave the country. “Who allowed and sent Haqqani abroad”, he questioned. Why the judicial commission report against Hussain Haqqani was not published, he asked.

He said his forefathers were the creators of Pakistan and he did not want a certificate of patriotism from any one. He demanded to publish the Abbottabad Commission report. He said the Pakistan’s security institutions were well established. The PPP did not act against the interest of Pakistan ever, he said. He demanded the government to arrest the killers of PPP Lahore leader Babar Butt.