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MASOOD HAIDER: GEN. MUSHARRAF AND PAKISTAN'S OPPOSITION ON COLLISION COURSE
WHILE U.S. TRIES TO PUT DEMOCRATIC PROCESS BACK ON TRACK:
16/11/2007 (MaximsNews Network)
UNITED NATIONS - / MaximsNews Network /
- 16 November 2007 -- The
confrontation between Pakistan’s opposition parties and the military leader
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf has become intense
as US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte arrived in Islamabad
to hold talks with the General to put Pakistan's "derailed" democratic
process back on track.
On
Friday Gen. Musharraf swore in a hand-picked interim
cabinet headed by the Chairman of Senate Mohammed Mian Soomro without consulting
opposition parties while his
government continued crackdown on opposition leaders.
Opposition
leader Benazir Bhutto, who was released from house arrest in Lahore,
rejected the new cabinet and called for lifting of emergency, restoration of
constitution and reinstatement of fired Supreme court judges, a key demand of
all opposition parties.
She
said the new interim government is "illegal"' and won't be able to
ensure free and fair elections.
Opposition
parties say more than 15,000 supporters have been arrested in the past two
weeks. PPP Leader Ms Bhutto is expected to travel to Islamabad.
Another
former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif remains in exile in Saudi Arabia
and Imran Khan,
Pakistan's former cricket
captain who leads a small opposition party, is in jail under anti-terrorism
laws after saying he planned to mobilize student protests.
Ms
Bhutto told reporters she is working to form an "effective coalition"
to end Musharraf's rule, or opposition parties may boycott the election due by
Jan. 9.
The
administration will have "no role to play with Musharraf enjoying sweeping
powers," said Ahsan Iqbal, spokesman for exiled former prime minister Nawaz
Sharif. "The opposition can't accept a government on which they were
not consulted."'
US Deputy Secretary Negroponte is expected to ask Gen. Musharraf to lift
emergency, restore constitution before holding elections a demand which the
General had earlier rejected in no uncertain terms.
But
officials in
Islamabad
told reporters that General
Musharraf seemed unlikely to comply until a newly appointed Supreme Court
confirmed his Oct. 6 election to another term as president.
U.S.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters in Washington Thursday that Gen.
Musharraf's "ability to lead, to continue to be a partner in the war on
terror, very much depends on how developments unfold over the next few weeks.''
''Musharraf
needs to move beyond the emergency measures as quickly as possible'' and
"step out of his army chief of staff role and become a civilian,'' Gates
added.
The
U.S.
has given Pakistan
more than $10 billion in
aid since 2001, mostly to the military, which is battling al-Qaeda and Taliban
rebels along the mountainous border with
Afghanistan.
But caveats from
his friends in Washington have not persuaded Gen. Musharraf to accept demands of
the opposition parties which include re-instatement of fired supreme court
judges, rescinding of emergency, restoration of constitution before holding
elections.
"Gen.
Musharraf, who proclaimed that he has introduced "genuine democracy"
in Pakistan, has charted a collision course with the civil society in order to
preserve his hold on absolute power", observed one political analyst here.
Labels: United
Nations, U.N., Masood
Haider, Pakistan
coup, Benazer
Bhutto, Gen.
Pervez Musharraf, dictator
~~~~~
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Masood Haider, Kerry
Kennedy, Ian Williams, Stephen Schlesinger, Sen.
Timothy E. Wirth, Marc Morial, Amb. Jayantha
Dhanapala (Sri Lanka), Amb. Pierre Schori
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Weld, Rory Kennedy, Mehri
Madarshahi, J. Michael Adams, Gloria Feldt,
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Bommer, Rory
O'Connor, Genevieve Stamper, Max Stamper and
others.
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