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Zardari, Gilani must resign over US operation: Qureshi

ISLAMABAD - Former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Saturday criticised the government’s handling of the Abbottabad operation and demanded the resignation of President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.

Qureshi, who is a member of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Central Executive Committee, termed the United States raid ‘unprovoked aggression’ and said that Zardari should have addressed the nation during the time of crisis, but instead he chose to write an opinion piece in a foreign newspaper.
He asked party leaders to convene the CEC meeting to give an explanation as to what had happened in Abbottabad and said that he will ask both Zardari and Gilani to step down in that meeting.
The former foreign minister urged the prime minister to summon a meeting of the Parliamentary Defence panel and called on top officials to go public with details of the American operation.
Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Al
i Khan also called for accountability of civil and military leadership for keeping the nation in the dark on the Abbotabad episode.
He said President Zardari should address the nation and reveal all facts or submit his resignation.
Nisar criticised Zardari for being busy in political games while remaining totally oblivious of the gravity of the situation.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Yousuf Razan Gilani returned from Paris at the conclusion of his four-day trip and met President Zardari.
Army chief Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani was also present in the meeting at the Presidency.
Cricket-hero-turned budding opposition leader Imran Khan and Shah Mehmood Qureshi, a ruling party lawmaker sacked as foreign minister earlier this year, have joined the chorus for Zardari and Gilani to resign.
mafzalkhan@yahoo.com

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