ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari Tuesday said the NFC Award, Balochistan Empowerment Package, taking head-on militancy, poverty alleviation program under BISP and political reforms and elections in Gilgit-Baltistan were some of the outstanding achievements of present government that had provoked our adversaries into joining hands against Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Geo news reported.

But the PPP will not be deterred, he said, adding also “We are not afraid to lead and we know the way”. President Zardari said this while addressing a gathering of the Peoples Lawyers Forum (PLF) of Rawalpindi-Islamabad here in the Presidency on Tuesday night.

Those who attended the meeting included among others Minister for Defence Ch. Ahmed Mukhtar, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr. Babar Awan, Secretary General PPP Jahangir Badar, Senator Nayyar Hussain Bokhari, Rukhsana Bangash, Fouzia Habib, Mehreen Anwer Raja, Qayyum Soomro and Spokesperson to the President former Senator Farhatullah Babar.

The President said that reconciliation with all political forces within the country and peaceful existence with honor with all countries in the region were the guiding principles of government.

That was the reason that the PPP refused to be provoked despite deliberate and calculated attempts to provoke it through overt and covert actions, he said.

President Zardari said the government had decided to talk with estranged political leaders of Balochistan and he had also asked the Parliament to consider giving general amnesty to political exiles for meaningful and durable reconciliation.

He said that Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto had given the idea of a ‘Truth and Reconciliation Commission’ which was later enshrined in the Charter of Democracy (CoD) and her last book was also titled “Reconciliation”.

It was time that all political forces in the country joined hands to set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the spirit of “forget the past, arrange for the present to face the future”, the President added.

More than a hundred lawyers of the PLF Rawalpindi-Islamabad attended the meeting. A number of the participants also spoke on the occasion and expressed their views on the current situation and made suggestions. The meeting also adopted a unanimous resolution reposing full confidence in the leadership of the Co-Chairman President Asif Ali Zardari and vowing to fight all conspiracies against the party and its leadership.