News
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Elections under Musharraf unacceptable: Benazir, Nawaz* Say they will meet again on May 14
* They intend to return to Pakistan together
* ‘US backing Musharraf counter-productive to achieving stability’LONDON: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Pakistan People’s Party would not accept any date for elections announced by President General Pervez Musharraf, exiled former prime ministers Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto told a crowded press conference after their much-awaited meeting on Monday.
Both leaders termed their meeting a historical step forward towards restoring “real democracy” in Pakistan. Musharraf’s regime is illegal and both parties will work out a joint strategy to oust the sitting government, they said. “Nawaz and Benazir will meet again on May 14,” they told reporters. They demanded that cases registered against political leaders be withdrawn. “We will not, under any circumstances, accept an elections’ date announced by Musharraf,” they reiterated.
They expressed concern over the deteriorating law and order situation in Balochistan, and the escalated tension in North and South Waziristan. They said they intended to return to Pakistan together, but would take a final decision in the meeting scheduled for May 14.
“We want to go back. We are very keen to go back and it is our candid and considered view that the elections cannot be held in a fair and free manner unless and until the two main leaders go back to the country and participate in the election campaign,” said Nawaz. Benazir said that while Musharraf had put many obstacles in their path to prevent their return, she believed there was a chance. “I am planning to go back to Pakistan for the elections of 2007 and I will be discussing this with Nawaz Sharif,” she said.
Bhutto and Sharif both said they were committed to fighting terrorism and that Washington’s backing of Musharraf was counter-productive to achieving long-term stability in Pakistan.
“The US should have its friendship not with one individual in the country,” said Nawaz. “It should make the people of Pakistan its friends, otherwise this present US policy is serving nothing else but alienating the 150 million people of the country,” he said. The PML-N leader said the opposition coalition had three demands: the 1973 constitution be restored, that the amendments to the constitution made by Musharraf not be recognised and that free and fair elections be held.
Bhutto said she believed their absence from the political stage was playing into the hands of parties exploiting religious and ethnic sentiments and that the only way to ensure a moderate Pakistan was to restore a pluralistic democracy.
“The issue really is: where does Pakistan go in the future? Is democracy, which has been promoted by the United States and the international community as a way to undermine terrorism, going to be applied to Pakistan or not?” she said.
“We believe that if this political vacuum continues then a moderate Pakistan will be very difficult to achieve.” Former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif have been in exile for several years and President Pervez Musharraf, who is widely expected to stay in office after the elections, has vowed to block their return to power.
Bhutto and Sharif were bitter rivals in the 1990s but formed the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy after Musharraf seized power in 1999 coup. Agencies
Courtesy http://www.DailyTimes.com.pk