President Dr Arif Alvi on Wednesday emphasized that for the future of the country, free, fair and credible elections should be held and the political parties be given a level playing field.
In an interview with a private TV talk show, the president said different quarters were talking about ensuring a level playing field for all the political parties in the country.
He said the basic norm should be democracy and all the political leaders should be given equal opportunities to contest the upcoming elections.
the president maintained that he had condemned the 9th May incidents as he was always against such acts of destruction.
He said that the constitution provided that a president might continue in office till the election of his successor and as the electoral requirement could not be met in the absence of assemblies, leaving his office in a vacuum was not good for him.
In the parliamentary system, changes could take place to governments, he said adding, in the past, unconstitutional elements had derailed the democratic system in the country.
The president expressed that despite difficult times, the country was moving on the path to democracy and there was a path to move forward.
Appreciating former premier Benazir Bhutto, the president recollected that in 2001 when he was arrested and sent to jail, he was told by the jail authorities that contrary to the dictatorship era, the environment in jails had been changed under the PPP government.
He said credit should be given to the PPP as a political party that was the standard bearer of democracy and women’s rights.
The president also lauded former president Asif Ali Zardari for raising the slogan of ‘Pakistan Khappay’. The president said the people had confidence in the superior courts and appreciated incumbent Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Qazi Faez Isa as a ‘highly respectable personality’, adding that the CJP had unified the court.
The nation had great expectations from Justice Qazi Faez Isa, he said and expressed the optimism that the CJP would deliver.
The president said he had not sent a reference against Justice Isa, as he had received it from the office of a former prime minister who also maintained that he was not willing to send it.
He condemned Israel’s atrocities against Palestinians and stressed no one can accept such inhuman acts.