ISLAMABAD, March 9: Former foreign minister Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Wednesday presented a virtual charge-sheet against the government of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), saying that a poor law and order situation, the energy crisis, food inflation, dictation from foreign donors, bad governance and rampant corruption in every department had ruined the life of ordinary people.

Speaking at a “Meet-the-Press” programme of the National Press Club here, he claimed that both Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and President Asif Ali Zardari were “satisfied” with his three-year performance as foreign minister, but something went wrong at the eleventh hour and he was not given the same portfolio in the cabinet reshuffle last month.

Despite repeated questions by reporters, Mr Qureshi avoided making any comments against the president or the prime minister, although he said the country needed “a clear, visionary leadership”.

“The two ingredients Pakistan requires (to meet its challenges) are good governance and a clear visionary leadership,” Mr Qureshi said after presenting his viewpoint on the challenges facing the country.

He said he was not presenting any charge-sheet against the government as he said he believed the problems facing the country were decades-old and had aggravated over the past few years due to the regional situation.

In reply to a question, he said this was not for the first time that he was speaking like this as he had always expressed his feelings honestly whenever he got an opportunity and at every forum.

He said he had no greed for ministries or the office of the prime minister. “Had there been any greed, I would not have rejected the water and power ministry, which is considered to be a lucrative ministry.”

The PPP leader, who was a strong contender for premiership after the 2008 general election, said he had no plans to quit the party, but seemed apprehensive of expulsion. “I have given the best years of life to the PPP. I am doing politics for self-respect and not for money. But if they push me out (of the party) then I have no option,” Mr Qureshi said in reply to a question whether he wanted to form a new group within the party.

“The pendulum of political reconciliation is swinging towards confrontation and polarisation,” Mr Qureshi said about the government’s reconciliation policy and held the Pakistan Muslim League-N responsible for damaging the reconciliation process initiated by late Benazir Bhutto and later continued by President Zardari.

“Look at the way they (PML-N) have thrown us out of the government in Punjab,” he said when asked as to who was responsible for confrontational politics.

The PPP leader said the law and order situation had gone so bad that an ordinary person felt insecure even in one’s house, adding the assassination of minorities’ affairs minister Shahbaz Bhatti had affected Pakistan’s image.

Noting that newspapers were full of reports about corruption prevalent in all walks of life and recalled that during a visit to Washington as foreign minister he called his leadership by telephone to inform them that “corruption and bad governance are the two words we are abuzz with here”.

In reply to a question about the possibility of mid-term elections, he said the country needed political as well as economic stability, and that it was up to the political leadership to decide how political stability could be ensured.

Mr Qureshi said he feared loadshedding of electricity would worsen in the coming days and regretted that no efforts had been made to tap the huge natural and indigenous resources which, according to him, were sufficient to provide surplus electricity to the country for hundreds of years.

Defending his record as foreign minister, he said he had worked hard for normalisation of relations with India without affecting the core issues and to improve bilateral relationship with the United States.

Blaming what he called trust-deficit for blocking friendly relationships with both India and the US, he said the Raymond Davis incident had poured cold water on all his efforts to bridge the mistrust. “We are back to a relationship of mistrust.”

He said the US had failed to appreciate Pakistan’s role in the war on terror. “I tried to drive home to US officials that Pakistanis believe US policies are discriminatory.”