Former Pakistan foreign minister demands resignation of Zardari, Gilani

Addressing a news conference here this afternoon, Qureshi said action should also be taken against the heads of the army and the Inter-Services Intelligence if they were held responsible by any official inquiry into the incident.

"I demand that the President and the Prime Minister must resign.If they cannot defend the people of Pakistan, they have no right to stay in power," a visibly angry Qureshi said.
"This was such a major incident and this impression being given of business as usual (cannot continue).

Today the people are saying that the time has come that somebody should take responsibility for this incident.

I am going to demand in the meeting of the (Pakistan People's Party's) central executive committee that the President and the Prime Minister must resign," he said.

Asked about the role of the chiefs of the army and the ISI, he said: "If the inquiry committee holds people responsible in those ranks, then heads must roll."

Qureshi was not reallocated the foreign affairs portfolio in a cabinet reshuffle in February after he toed the military's line on the issue of CIA contractor Raymond Davis, who was arrested for shooting two Pakistani men in Lahore.

Qureshi's contention that Davis was not entitled to blanket immunity angered the top leadership of the PPP.

Since then, Qureshi has been largely sidelined in the PPP and not invited to some crucial meetings of the top leadership.

Qureshi said Pakistanis were looking for leadership that could "feel and die" for the country.

He contended that the US had crossed a "red line" by carrying out a military operation to kill bin Laden without Pakistan's permission.Pakistan is a partner of the US in the war on terror but "is this an answer to our commitment and sacrifices, he asked."

Zardari had time to write an article for a US newspaper on the issue of bin Laden but neither he nor the prime minister bothered to take the nation into confidence, he said.
"The Prime Minister should immediately call a meeting of the Defence Committee of Cabinet and discuss this matter which matters to the whole nation," he said. Every Pakistani was angry and embarrassed over the bin Laden episode, he said.

Besides Qureshi, former premier Nawaz Sharif's PML-N party and cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan's Tehrik-e-Insaf party have demanded that some heads must roll in the wake of the "unauthorised" US raid in Pakistani territory.