May 31, 2008	Saturday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 25, 1429

ISLAMABAD, May 30: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has said that the government believes in supremacy of parliament and independence of the judiciary and it will never compromise on democratic principles.

“Let there be no doubt that our party and its government will not compromise on democratic principles. It will not undertake any move that may weaken parliament’s supremacy, independence of the judiciary or freedom of the press,” the prime minister said at a reception for a delegation of Socialist International on Friday.

However, he said the government believed in dialogue and engagement to achieve its objectives, instead of pursuing a policy of confrontation.

He said that by pursuing the process of dialogue the People’s Party had achieved the main objective of ending the rule by military uniform and introducing genuine democracy. “We hope to consolidate our position through this strategy.”

He said the PPP was the first party in the subcontinent to become a member of Socialist International in 1990.

Tracing the history of PPP’s struggle for democracy since its founding in 1967, he said: “For us it has been an arduous journey for democracy. This journey is painted with sweat and blood, with toil and vigour and with pain and anguish.”

He recalled a series of reforms the first PPP government had introduced for the working class soon after coming to power in the 1970s.

Mr Gilani said it was the PPP government which had introduced the concept of students’ unions in the country. The government of late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had given the country an undisputed Constitution, he said. However, in July 1977, the first democratic socialist government was toppled and the first directly elected prime minister was eliminated through a judicial murder. —APP