Strong democracy imperative for stability, development of country: NA Speaker.

ISLAMABAD -- Speaker National Assembly Raja Pervaiz Ashraf Wednesday said strong, fully functional democracy was imperative for peace, stability and development as no country could progress without strengthening democratic values.

In their separate messages pertaining to International Democracy Day, commemorated every year on September,15 Speaker National Assembly Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and Deputy Speaker Zahid Akram Durrani said that democracy contributed toward socio-economic progress of the country, as well as ensures basic fundamental rights to all its citizens.

He said that democracy gave the right to people to choose their elected representatives who were responsible for making laws and governing the country.

In order to achieve these objectives, it was the duty of all political parties to shun their differences and join hands to strengthen the democratic process in the country, he added.

The...