ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Wednesday took the leadership of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) to task for undermining the sanctity of the office of the country's chief executive.

“While I was abroad, some political leaders tried to undermine the sanctity of the office of the prime minister and urged their party workers to stage protest rallies, but they miserably failed due to the people's commitment to democracy,” said the prime minister while chairing the federal cabinet meeting.

He said such politicians could not interpret the court judgments according to their “own whims” and asked them to avoid influencing the courts by their own interpretation.

Prime Minister Gilani briefed the cabinet on his recent visit to the United Kingdom. He said that he had a very successful visit and his meeting with British Prime Minister David Cameron was very useful.

He said apart from the Enhanced Strategic Dialogue, his visit to Buckingham Palace and meetings with the Duke of York and other UK ministers provided an opportunity to discuss various strands of cooperation between the two countries.

He further said the British prime minister applauded the fact that the government of Pakistan was working to strengthen democracy and categorically declared that Pakistan's friend was the UK's friend and Pakistan's enemy was the UK's enemy, a strong reiteration to Pakistan's importance in the international community.

About the contempt of court case, Gilani said he had a right to appeal and hoped that the justice would be done in accordance with the constitution.

The prime minister informed the cabinet that the country's economic indicators were moving in the right direction despite the global recession and the devastating floods of 2010 and 2011.

He said the government would present a pro-people budget. He had given following policy guidelines and broad parameters to the finance ministry for preparation of the budget.

“The budget should be people-friendly and priority be given to alleviating the difficulties of common men and provision of relief. Job creation through the next budget should be a top priority. Job opportunities for 100,000 young men and women have to be created,” asserted Gilani.

He said in order to ensure cost-effective service delivery to the masses, expansion and strengthening of infrastructure and improvement of governance should be government's priority.

He said to address the energy crisis in the country, recommendations of the energy conference held in Lahore in April this year, should be the guidelines for resource allocation for the power sector. The recommendations of the energy conference have been prepared with the consensus of the provinces, he added.

He added that the tax policy and tariff rationalisation may be done thoughtfully and methodically after analysis of all products on merit without discouraging the local and foreign investment.

“Monitoring and evaluation capacity of the Planning Commission be strengthened. The evaluation should be result-based with emphasis upon outcomes.”

He said the cost of project management in public sector development was too high which needed to be further rationalised and expeditious and full disbursement of the PSDP budgets should be ensured during the currency of the financial year.

The premier congratulated Religious Affairs Minister Khurshid Shah and party workers for organising a successful public meeting at Kamu Shaheed. He also welcomed and appreciated that the opposition had proposed names for the chief election commissioner.

Moreover, the prime minister after attending a ceremony of Research Productivity Awards organised by the ministry of science and technology said Opposition Leader in the NA Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan earlier agreed to talk to him on appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) but then he refused to hold consultations afterwords.

He said PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif had accepted his position by proposing names to the committee for appointment of the CEC.

The appointment of new CEC is a legal requirement and the issue will not be decided on wishes of anybody, the premier said, adding Syed Khurshid Shah had been elected chairman of the committee which would take a decision about the new CEC.