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POLITICAL
TURMOIL IN PAKISTAN WORSENS: PM’s RETURN AND
DEPORTATION WEAKENS MUSHARRAF by MASOOD HAIDER:
11/9/2007
(MaximsNews.com,
U.N.)
UNITED NATIONS - / www.MaximsNews.com@
U.N./
- 11
September 2007 -- The political crisis in Pakistan
has become more ominous than ever before with the return and deportation
of former Pakistani prime minister, Nawaz Sharif.
(Mr.
Sharif, is a bitter rival of General Pervez Musharraf, who ousted him
in a coup in 1999. He has spent much of his last seven years in exile in Saudi
Arabia under an agreement to leave Pakistan for 10 years in return for having
his jail sentences for corruption and hijacking commuted. General
Musharraf's government has insisted that he should fulfill the agreement and
remain in Saudi Arabia, where he was sent on Monday)
Sharif
may have failed for now in his bid to return to
Pakistan, but he succeeded in leaving President Pervez Musharraf with an even
bigger dilemma on his hands, the
political experts here said.
His return
to Pakistan was viewed as an attempt
to jumpstart a movement against Gen. Musharraf, who shunted Mr. Sharif from
Pakistan
in a bloodless coup in 1999, and to pave the way for Mr. Sharif's reentry into
Pakistani political life.
Mr. Sharif now may become an even stronger rallying point for a burgeoning
pro-democracy movement that views Gen. Musharraf as the head of an authoritarian
government said one newspaper.
Mr.
Sharif's deportation also is likely to set Gen. Musharraf on a collision course
with
Pakistan's Supreme Court, with which he already has extremely tense relations.
Supporters
of Mr. Sharif filed a Supreme Court petition challenging the government's right
to deport Mr. Sharif. Given its prior ruling on Mr. Sharif, the Supreme Court
may well take a dim view of the government's actions.
The
U.S.
is increasingly concerned about the political instability sweeping
Pakistan. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte is due in
Pakistan
for scheduled talks this week.
A
senior government official said the decision to deport Mr. Sharif to Jeddah was
taken with the consent of the Saudi government.
Saudi Arabia
's intelligence chief, Prince Muqrain bin Abdul Aziz, met with Gen. Musharraf in
Islamabad
over the weekend.
Mr.
Sharif's forced return to
Saudi Arabia
has also drawn a sharp contrast to another former prime minister in exile,
Benazir Bhutto.
She
has so far opted to negotiate her return to
Pakistan
with Gen. Musharraf, rather than openly challenge his government.
Progress
toward a power-sharing deal between Gen. Musharraf and Ms. Bhutto has appeared
to bog down in recent days amid opposition from Gen. Musharraf's
supporters. But a Musharraf spokesman said Tuesday that the talks with Mr.
Bhutto are continuing.
Mr.
Azim Khan, the deputy minister, said the talks with Ms. Bhutto are continuing.
The
Bush administration has been skeptical of Mr. Sharif's return and the role his
might play in
Pakistan's political system. But the State Department criticized
Islamabad
's move to deport the former prime minister.
"The
decision to deport him runs contrary to the Supreme Court's decision but as I
said it is still a pending legal matter," State Department spokesman Sean
McCormack told reporters.
The
European Union said the Supreme Court ruling on Mr. Sharif's freedom to return
should have been respected.
But the New York Times reported Tuesday that one Bush administration official
said President Pervez Musharraf's strong move against former Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif "would enable him to stand up to Mr Sharif's allies in
Pakistan" and go ahead with the power sharing deal with another former
Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
In a report the newspaper said that the "Bush administration official,
declining to be identified because he was not authorized to speak publicly about
the issue, said the deportation was “not necessarily the worst thing that
could happen.”
The
Times said "while the United States is loath to appear publicly as if it is
interfering in Pakistan's politics, the Bush administration has been urging
General Musharraf to agree to a power-sharing deal with another former prime
minister, Benazir Bhutto.
However,
most political observers in Pakistan believe that any deal between Musharraf
government and Ms Bhutto could further undermine her standing in the eyes of
Pakistani people.
"At this point in time its best that she stands down and watch the scenario
unfold as the dictator will surely go down before its all ends", one
observer said.
MasoodHaider@MaximsNews.com
Masood
Haider is the U.N. correspondent for The
Daily Dawn, the largest English daily newspaper of Pakistan, and he is the
past president of the United
Nations Correspondents Association.
He has
reported on New York and the United Nations since 1993 for The
Daily Dawn, published simultaneously
in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.
He
served as president of the United
Nations Correspondents Association
(UNCA) in 2006, after being elected by journalists who report on the U.N.
from around the world.
Mr.
Haider started his journalistic career in 1970 as a
correspondent for the Eastern News Agency (ENA), the first East Pakistani news
agency and later the First Bangladeshi news agency.
He
later moved to The Morning News as a reporter until 1978 when he moved to the
United States.
In
1984 Mr. Haider became Chief Editor of a South Asian ethnic newspaper, Eastern
Times, which was published in New York.
From
1988 to 1989 he worked for The Muslim, Islamabad, and the following year for
The Frontier Post. He then worked with Academic File, a London based News
Agency. In 1993, he joined The
Daily Dawn.
Masood
Haider is a
Contributor to MaximsNews.com, An Independent Voice from the United Nations.
MasoodHaider@MaximsNews.com
Labels: United
Nations, U.N., Masood
Haider
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