Marking the 32nd commemoration of the assassination of Martyr PM Rashid Karami, Head of the Karami Movement, MP Faisal Karami, paid tribute Saturday to the memory of his late uncle, saying "we have not forgiven and will not forget."

In a meeting at the Movement Chief's Tripoli residence earlier on Saturday, deputies of the Consultative Gathering and the National Bloc joined MP Karami in commemorating his late uncle, alongside a number of political officials and dignitaries from the region.

"The first and immediate goal of assassinating the Muslim Head of Lebanon's Council of Ministers at a moment of conflict between Muslims and Christians was to trigger sedition and fighting between citizens of the same homeland, but this goal was eliminated in its cradle by thwarting the malicious intentions and the worst expectations of the perpetrators," said Karami.

"The second goal of removing Rashid Karami from the Lebanese political arena was to promote the notions of division and federalism that were at their peak back then, for it was known that a man of the late Karami's caliber and importance constituted an impenetrable barrier to partition and strife," Karami went on.

He outlined the various remarkable attributes of the late Martyr Prime Minister, especially in his belief in Lebanon as a country of unity and solidarity and in the role of the resistance in protecting Lebanon from the Zionist enemy's plots of occupation and aggression.

Touching on the state budget issue, MP Karami expressed his initial skepticism towards the current government's ability to implement its promised reforms, deeming the annual budget as the "Cedar budget" instead of being Lebanon's. "The first glimmerings of the draft budget confirmed my doubts, and the irony is that the time spent by the government in discussing the budget items would have been sufficient to take the courageous decisions to launch the reform process to rescue Lebanon from the economic and social dangers threatening it," he said.

Karami regretted that the government aimed at the budget for the sole reason of having an official digital document to be submitted to donor countries as a confirmation that it has completed the requirements to reduce the deficit on paper, so as to begin receiving the Cedar funds; and thus, burden Lebanon with a new dose of increased public indebtedness and spending. He deemed this whole process as a mere postponement of the country's economic and financial problems.

"I think it is time to tell the Lebanese that the economic and financial policies adopted since 1993 to-date have yielded these major dilemmas in the country, and that the most basic duties stipulated by national responsibility oblige us to reconsider these policies," Karami underscored, adding that "officials should have the courage to recognize this failure and reconsider everything that happened as a prelude to a serious reform process."