‘Mush to shed uniform by year-end’

[KashifAsrar]

ToI feed dated 20th June 2007.
Kashif

‘Mush to shed uniform by year-end’​

Pak Foreign Minister Kasuri Indicates General Will Not Flout Constitution


Washington: Pakistani foreign minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri strongly suggested on Monday that President Pervez Musharraf would give up his post as army chief by yearend as political opponents have demanded and the country’s constitution requires.
Musharraf, a general who took power in a 1999 coup who also holds the title of army chief, is facing growing opposition since his March 9 decision to suspend the country’s chief justice. He has been viewed as reluctant to give up his army post by the end of the year as required by the constitution, a move that would signal the country’s return to civilian rule.
Musharraf “has said he will not violate the constitution. The constitution allows him to wear it (his army uniform) until the end of the year ... I cannot put words in his mouth but he has said, not one, but one thousand times, that he will abide by the constitution,” Kasuri said.
Pressed on whether Americans should conclude from his remarks that the president will definitely vacate his army post, Kasuri said: “I will repeat what I said. President Musharraf has said umpteen times that he will abide by the constitution so I think you have a response there.” Controversially, Musharraf aims to be re-elected, probably while still army chief, by legislative assemblies before they are dissolved in November for a general election around the turn of the year.
Kasuri arrived in Washington for an intensive round of 40 meetings over three days — including talks with secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and defence secretary Robert Gates — as political turmoil continued in Pakistan. Kasuri played down his trip as routine consultations with Pakistan’s major ally. But it follows immediately on trips to Islamabad last week and over the weekend by three key US officials. REUTERS

UK envoy summoned over Rushdie row

Islamabad: Pakistan summoned the British ambassador to the foreign ministry on Tuesday, officials from both sides said, amid mounting anger at the award of a knighthood to author Salman Rushdie.
British high commissioner Robert Brinkley was due to visit the ministry in Islamabad later in the day, high commission spokesman Aidan Liddle said. He could not provide any further details. Pakistan foreign office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam confirmed that Brinkley had been summoned and said that he would receive a copy of resolutions passed by parliament against the knighthood. Pakistan’s upper and lower houses of parliament have both called for Britain to withdraw the award given to Rushdie, the Indian-born author of The Satanic Verses. AFP


Rice calls for free elections in Pakistan

Washington: US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice called for “free and fair” elections in Pakistan and expressed concerns about the violent protests in the country. “There are an important set of events coming up, when there will be elections in Pakistan,” Rice said. “And the importance of those elections being free and fair, as a foundation for a more democratic Pakistan, I think, is very clear.”
Rice is signalling the Bush administration’s steadfast support for Pakistan’s struggling leader. She also expressed concern about the South Asian country’s rising violence and said opposition groups should have more rights.
Rice’s meeting on Monday with foreign minister Khurshid Kasuri came as president Musharraf faces the biggest political crisis of his eightyear rule, with thousands taking to the streets to demand the president relinquish power.
The US has been criticised for supporting Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup and continues to control the military, at the expense of democracy in Pakistan. But Rice said the US is “second to none in continuing to press for openness in Pakistan, for the rights of opposition in Pakistan and for free and fair elections.”
Rice said the US is uneasy about the situation in Pakistan, where lawyers and opposition party members are protesting Musharraf ’s suspension of the supreme court’s chief judge.
But “Musharraf has been a good ally in the war on terror,” she told reporters. “Pakistan has come a very long way since 2001 in its commitment to try and root out extremism, to try to make reforms.”
Kasuri told reporters that he and Rice focused in their meeting on the fight against Al Qaida and Taliban militants in Afghanistan and on peace efforts between Pakistan and archrival India. India and Pakistan, which have fought two wars over control of the disputed Kashmir region since gaining independence from Britain in 1947, have made a lot of progress in recent talks, Kasuri said, “but the rest depends on political will.”
On Monday, dozens of lawyers, dressed in black suits and chanting “Death to Musharraf”, boycotted courts and staged a rally in southwest Pakistan to protest a raid on a relative of suspended supreme court chief judge Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry.
As Kasuri and Rice met, about 10 demonstrators stood outside the state department, chanting anti-Musharraf slogans and holding signs that read, “Pakistan is Crying for Democracy” and “Enough is Enough”. AGENCIES

 

[thorosius]

Musharraf withdrew from his own promise before how is he going to fulfill something Kasuri said?

 

[Bull]

i luved the cartoon

 

[KashifAsrar]

Nice One indeed.
How innocent Kasuri look!
Kashif