News
Saturday, March 08, 2008
NA session to be convened within 10 days: Musharraf
* President promises full support to new government if peace is maintained
* Hails victory of moderate forces in elections
* Says no differences between he and armyJACOBABAD: President Pervez Musharraf said on Friday that he would convene parliament in 10 days and vowed full support to the incoming government. “Durable, stable governments should be formed in the Centre and provinces for five years,” the president said while inaugurating a water supply project in Jacobabad. “The national and provincial assemblies’ sessions will be called in a week or one-and-a-half weeks. There will be no hurdle to this,” state-run Pakistan television showed him as saying. “All political parties should demonstrate prudence and focus on governance and this is possible only if all of them demonstrate peace,” Musharraf said. “I promise if peace is maintained, I will fully support the new coalition governments.” The new federal and provincial governments should sustain the process of development and fight the scourge of extremism and terrorism, he said. Moderate forces: Musharraf said that the international community recognised that he had fulfilled his pledge to hold free and fair elections. He said that moderate forces had triumphed in the elections, and people had rejected the extremists, particularly in the NWFP. “Now we must concentrate on sustaining the economic growth and continue the fight against extremism and terrorism,” the president said. He said the people who had alleged that the government would massively rig in the February 18 elections should now be held accountable. He said he supported independent media but said the media should report objectively and demonstrate responsibility. No differences: President Musharraf also said there were no differences between him and the army. “This band of people is currently spreading propaganda that there is a distancing between me and the army, which is totally unfounded and concocted,” he said. “There is no distancing between me and the army. It is my army. It is the army of Pakistan. It can not forget me as well as the masses of Pakistan,” he said. Musharraf said he had fulfilled all the promises he had made. “I had promised that I had to take off the uniform in accordance with the Constitution. I had promised that the elections would be conducted in a peaceful, fair and transparent manner. I fulfilled these promises,” he said. “We conceived two years ago that pure water supply schemes should be started all over Pakistan. This scheme is a part of the very conception,” the president said, referring to the project he was inaugurating. He said he had been told that water in Jacobabad came from the Kirthar Canal that often was closed. “We have built two water reservoirs here. Even if water supply from Kirthar Canal stops, a water reserve shall remain available,” he said. He also announced setting up a Water Board for the area. He praised the Jacobabad district government for setting up a Women’s Crises Centre. “I am extremely pained that after December 27 miscreants indulged in destruction,” President Musharraf said, referring to the riots following former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s death. “They damaged public and private buildings. It is the same people who are spreading various rumours now,” he said. He announced Rs 50 million to compensate damage to buildings in the violence and said a commission to be set up by the federal government would compile a report in this regard. The president on Friday afternoon left for Karachi, where Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibab, Caretaker Chief Minister Abdul Qadir Halepota, Corps Commander Lt Gen Ahsen Azhar Hayat and Sindh Home Minister Brig (r) Akhtar Zamin received him at the airport. afp/app
Courtesy Daily Times