Pakistan sinking ship gives ex PM chance to return

[EagleEyes]

Pakistan “sinking ship” gives ex PM chance to return
(AFP)
29 May 2007


LONDON - Nawaz Sharif, who was ousted eight years ago as Pakistan’s prime minister by General Pervez Musharraf, senses the “sinking ship” of military rule in Islamabad offers him a chance to return home soon.


In an interview from exile in London, Sharif said an “erratic” and “impulsive” President Musharraf is comitting crimes and blunders in a desperate bid to resist a rising public backlash to his actions.

“I think the chances (of his political survival) are bleak and they are getting bleaker day by day,” Sharif told AFP Monday from his offices decorated with the Pakistani flag, a white crescent and star on a green background.

Long at loggerheads with Pakistan’s Islamists for his close ties with Washington in the war on terrorism, Musharraf now faces even broader opposition since he suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on March 9.

The president says Chaudhry was suspended for misconduct, but his opponents say Musharraf wants to weaken the courts ahead of any legal challenges to his bid to remain army chief past the constitutional time limit of the end of 2007.

Sharif’s ouster from power in 1999 was widely welcomed by ordinary Pakistanis tired of corruption under his rule.

Now in Britain after years of exile in Saudi Arabia, Sharif intends to go home before general elections later this year or early 2008, even though Musharraf has vowed to bar Sharif and former premier Benazir Bhutto from doing so.

Despite the risk of arrest on corruption charges or even to his own safety, Sharif, 46, said: “I’m not scared of taking any risks if I can play a role to save my country.”

He claimed that Musharraf, 63, is resorting to increasingly desperate and violent measures to stay in power.

He accused Musharraf and MQM party leader Altaf Hussein, who also lives in London, of having “masterminded” the May 12-13 killings in Karachi of 40 people who protested Chaudhry’s suspension.

The “massacre” amounted to the “biggest blunder” committed by any Pakistani president, worse than his removal of Chaudry, Sharif said. “This was state-sponsored carnage and sanctioned personally by Mr. Musharraf.”

Sharif, who heads his own faction of the Pakistan Muslim League, admitted he would like to return to power but said it depended on the legal and political process in Pakistan.

What is certain, he said, is that a broad-based popular movement is now pushing for free and fair elections, and Musharraf “cannot dissallow any party or any leader to come back to Pakistan” for the polls.

“There will be soon the time I return to Pakistan,” he said, declining to say whether he would return in months, weeks or days.

“Three months ago, I thought it was still far away. But I don’t think the same way now. I think it is drawing nearer and nearer now.”

He said he has “cordial” relations with the 53-year-old Bhutto, the head of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

Like Bhutto, Sharif is a mainstream politician who governed Pakistan twice between 1988 and 1999. Like Bhutto, he argues that dictatorship breeds the Islamist extremism that threatens both Pakistan and the West.

However, he appeared to suggest Bhutto may have violated a charter for democracy that the two had signed by talking with Musharraf, amid conflicting reports that the president was trying to strike a deal with her to broaden his fragile support.

Sharif, who said he has never had talks with Musharraf or any of his associates, stands by the charter which binds the signatories to no “negotiations, no deal with dictators.”

“Whosoever enters a deal with a person like Musharraf would also seal his or her fate if he does so. And if you associate yourself with a sinking ship, you would be ...as much a loser as the other person,” he said.

“I don’t think any ... politician or political party can bail Musharraf out of the crisis he is in today,” he said.

Sharif said he had held talks with officials in Britain’s Foreign Office and US Congressmen about the situation in Pakistan while also retaining close contact with former US president Bill Clinton, whom he describes as a friend.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/Display...subcontinent_May1136.xml&section=subcontinent

 

[EagleEyes]

More drama will be created when he returns. He is not coming to Karachi all i know!

 

[EagleEyes]

Benazir will return to Pakistan before elections

PPPISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto will return to Pakistan to participate in the next elections, said Mian Raza Rabbani, leader of the opposition in the Senate, in a press statement here on Monday.

He was reacting to the interview of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in which he claimed that Bhutto could not participate in the elections as several cases were pending against her.

Rabbani said that the world knew that cases against Bhutto were politically motivated. “She had not been convicted in a single case despite ten years of witch hunting, media trial and squandering of taxpayers’ money on tarnishing her image,” he said.

Rabbani said that the Supreme Court had not only overturned her conviction but had also observed in an appeal in one of the cases that the bias of the trial judge floated on the surface of the record forcing the judges to quit most unceremoniously.

He said despite the passage of a decade the cases against Bhutto were in the nature of allegations and accusations and there was no law that barred anyone from contesting election merely on the basis of allegations against him or her.

“She will not only return to the country but also take part in elections and if the people of Pakistan voted her into power she will be the Prime Minister for the third time as well,” he asserted.

He said that Aziz’s remarks showed that he was merely acting as the mouthpiece of the military dictatorship that had become desperate in an election year and was scared of the popular leadership of the country.

Rabbani recalled that Aziz had damaged the country’s position in the world by the published reports of his disgraceful behaviour with a foreign dignitary that had not been contradicted despite widely reported in the national and international media. He said that Aziz had yet to convince the nation that he was not involved in the scams of stock market crash, fixation of petroleum prices and the privatisation of Pakistan Steel to name only a few of the mega corruption scandals. staff report

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\05\29\story_29-5-2007_pg7_36

 

[EagleEyes]

Another one ready to return. Bale Bale for Lahori and interceptor.

 

[EagleEyes]

No One Can Stop Ms Bhutto from Returning Home: Raza
By April Yu 'Pakistan Times' Foreign Correspondent

ISLAMABAD: “Former Prime Minister Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto will return to Pakistan before the elections and also participate in the polls”.

This has been stated by leader of the opposition in the Senate Mian Raza Rabbani in a statement on Monday while responding to the interview by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz claiming that she cannot participate in the elections because several legal cases were pending against her.

Mian Raza Rabbani said; "the whole world knew that cases against Mohtarma Bhutto were politically motivated. She had not been convicted in a single case despite ten years of witch hunting, media trial and squandering of taxpayers’ money on tarnishing her image".

The Supreme Court had not only overturned her conviction but also observed in an appeal in one of the cases that the bias of the trial judge floated on the surface of the record forcing the judges to quit most unceremoniously, he said.

He said despite the passage of a decade the cases against Mohtarma were in the nature of allegations and accusations and there was no law that barred anyone from contesting election merely on the basis of allegations against him or her.

He said that Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto would not only return to the country but also take part in elections and if the people of Pakistan voted her into power she will be the Prime Minister for the third time as well.

Mian Raza Rabbani said that Shaukat Aziz had yet to convince the nation that he was not involved in the scams of stock market crash, fixation of petroleum prices and the privatisation of Pakistan Steel to name only a few of the mega corruption scandals.

“A Prime Minister who lives in glass house would be well advised to refrain from making unwarranted comments about Mohtarma”, he remarked.

Of Christians

Meanwhile, acceding to another report, taking note of the threats being made to the minority Christian community through a letter writing campaign, Pakistan Peoples Party has called upon the regime to fulfil its responsibilities in protecting the citizens or to resign.

In a statement today the Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party Ms Benazir Bhutto said that the primary aim of a government is to provide protection to the life, liberty and pursuit of livelihood of the citizens. Any government who cannot do this, must resign and make way for another that can give such protection.

Mohtarma Bhutto noted that the incident of the letter writing campaign to threaten and intimidate members of the Christian community is the latest in a series of incidents over the years where the "government has abdicated its responsibility to protect the citizens".

She said that the government's pre-occupation with political vendetta has led to the neglect of the basic right of citizens to protection of themselves and their homes in the country.

According to reports the Christians of Charsadda were being threatened to convert to Islam or face dire consequences. The threat to the Christians is similar to recent threats to private schools in Tank, members of the entertainment industry in Islamabad and citizens of Karachi and to Opposition party activists’ in the recent bye elections held in February.

The former Prime Minister assured the Christian Community and people in general in the country that the PPP would provide protection to each and every citizen. She said that the PPP had given the citizens security and a boom economy.

Info Minister Reax

Meanwhile, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Muhammad Ali Durrani has said that most of the problems being faced by the self-exiled opposition leadership were part of their self-cultivated mess.

Talking to the media here on Monday, the Minister said that the PPP leader Benazir Bhutto would have to face the law of the land if she returns.

The Minister said the government has to its credit the introduction of good and transparent governance, economic turnaround, strengthening of the democratic institutions, strengthening of the media freedom, and mega development projects throughout the country including the most ignored and under-developed areas.

"In addition to all these achievements, the government is active for materializing the dream and goals set by the father of the nation Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah," he said.

"From 1988 to 1999, the economy faced a major setback and poverty increased significantly. The ratio of people living under the poverty line rose from 17 percent to 35 percent while the rulers were enjoying luxury," he said and added that the former rulers kept denying the ownership of their assets abroad.

To a question regarding the presidential reference against Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the Minister said that the opposition is misleading the masses over a pure legal and constitutional matter.

"The irony of the situation is that all these efforts launched in the name of the independence of judiciary are aimed at pressurizing the superior judiciary as the matter of the presidential reference is pending with the judiciary," he said.

The Information Minister added that unfortunately the Supreme Court (SC) guidelines were being violated and referred in this connection to the proceedings of a seminar at the Supreme Court premises on May 26.

"The SC building was used for political objectives and objectionable language was used against constitutional institutions and even against some former judges of the superior judiciary. Political speeches were conducted and slogans were raised inside the premises of the apex court," he said.

He also said that a strong and stable Afghanistan is in Pakistan's interest.

The Minister said that the war against terrorism is a common objective and all the allies facing the challenge are sailing in the same boat.

He said joint efforts are necessary to win the war against terrorism, that the focus of all should remain on the main objective as blame game would only help the adversary.

The Minister said that Pakistan government has taken all essential steps to ensure peace on its borders.

"Besides strict monitoring on the Pak-Afghan border, Pakistan has erected fences alongside the long frontier. The drug money has links with the regional and global terrorism increase," he said.●