Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Islambad (Agenzia Fides) - Pakistan has a new prime minister: Raja Pervez Ashraf, of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), who yesterday received the positive vote of the Federal Parliament, and has already formed the new government.
A native of the district of Rawalpindi, 62 years old, Ashraf was Minister for Water and Energy in the executive led by former Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, disqualified by the Supreme Court on June 20 last year.
The duty of the Ministry for National Harmony was confirmed to Paul Bhatti, Shahbaz Bhatti’s brother, a Catholic minister for minorities who was killed a year ago. Paul Bhatti told Fides: "While not agreeing with the decision of the Supreme Court, political forces have given a strong signal to continue the democratic path and do not want to create an institutional conflict. The new Prime Minister will continue Gilani’s executive policy. The Ministry for National Harmony has been re-confirmed, according to a attentive policy towards religious minorities."
The wish expressed to Fides by Fr. Robert McCulloch, Missionary of St. Columban, who has been in Pakistan for over 30 years is that "this crisis does not lead to a democratic crisis. In Gilani’s case, it would have been the first time in the history of the country if the Premier had completed his term, but unfortunately this did not happen." "This institutional crisis – he adds - highlights the need to review the balance among the powers in Pakistan. It seems that the judiciary is considering its role in an interventionist sense, as the American model, rather than safeguarding civil liberties, as intended, instead, by the British constitutional model, designed in the Pakistani Constitution.
" (PA) (Agenzia Fides 23/6/2012)
