Pakistan - News and Discussion 6

[acharya]

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Musharraf must quit to prevent revolution: Khar

By Faizan Bangash
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LAHORE: President General Pervez Musharraf should resign as the president of Pakistan to prevent people from rising up in protest against him, Pakistan People’s Party (Central) Leader Ghulam Mustafa Khar told Daily Times on Tuesday.

“The country’s political situation is in a crisis and people might rise up in a bloody revolution against the usurpers (military regime),” said Khar, a former Punjab chief minister. The Pakistan Army was suffering because of Musharraf’s inconsistent policies, which were leading the country towards civil war, he said. The president should be held responsible for tarnishing the country’s image and increasing people’s grievances, he added.

The PPP leader said the Pakistani people and all political parties should realise that military dictatorship could not benefit the country. “In the past six years, Musharraf and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid leaders have failed in providing relief to the poor and reducing their problems,” he said. The president and his regime had not proved beneficial in the past six years and the situation would worsen, he added.
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Khar said the opposition might reconcile with the army if the latter was recognised as an institution - not an occupation force. “The army should be supporting the government in times of crisis rather than ruling the country,” he said. “Corruption, sectarianism, violence and terrorism were by-products of military rule, not democratic rule,” he added.

Later, the PPP leaders rejected rumours of a rift within the party over PPP Chairwoamn Benazir Bhutto’s return. “All party members unanimously agreed that Benazir should return before the 2007 general elections,” he said. The PPP chairwoman was in regular contact with the party and would return soon, he stressed. “No one can stop Benazir or Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz chief Nawaz Sharif from returning because they are Pakistani nationals and it is their legal right.”

The PPP’s popularity had not diminished despite repeated efforts by Musharraf, said Khar. “The PPP is still the country’s largest party and the 2007 polls will prove that no military dictator, neither Ziaul Haq nor Musharraf, has been able to divide the party,” said Khar.