Musharraf is riding a multi-horned dragon which consists of escalating inflation, unemployment, poverty and hyper-escalating population explosion (500 children an hour). Sectarian and linguistic conflicts, fundamentalist bloody upheivels in the North, nasty encounters with the judiciary and clergy, he has to keep the Army's morale up. I wonder how the brass is going to manage the dragon's flight. We plea to America to come to the front-line ally's help. Pakistanis are extremely de-moralised because of the uncertainities of the events. The way Musharraf handled Laal Masjid and Jamiya-e-Hafsa was a unique phenomenon in Pakistan's tragic history. We saw several hundred people evaporating in suicidal bombs etc. How the free world expects Pakistan to perform its herculean job of fighting terrorism? In our view, Musharraf has to digest the bitter accolade of judicial independence, removal of uniform, tolerance of opposition parties and absolute freedom to media. It is the ripest time for Army to start relying on civilian politicians. We must realise that the so-called "nuclear power" status that we are enjoying is no more than a nightmare. Nuclear power against whom? I wonder. Pakistan at this juncture needs a sacular, democratic system of government which although appears like a dream but with the help of our great ally, America, this can be achieved. "Enlightened moderates" who have the intellect to promulgate free and sacular ideologies be encouraged and brought to the upper stratas of our rulers. The multi-millionaire traders, manufacturers, industrialists, bankers and intellectuals are the people who can bring about this change. "Economic crunch" which directly hits the stomach is to be remedied by the people mentioned above. These selfish, callous and short-sighted classes are supposed to provide their labourers enough to keep them thriving. Our country is in dire need of changing into an industrial state instead of the thousands-of-years-old agrarian system. Because agrarian society is accumulating wealth and culture into a few traders' hands in the cities and these callous individuals mix the above-mentioned entities with religion and in-conivance with greedy religious clerics manipulate the destiny of the hundred and sixty million Pakistanis.
-Dr Shaukat Amanullah, Faisalabad, Pakistan.
Musharraf Promises Elections
But opposition leaders say a fair vote is impossible under emergency decree.
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In his first press conference since he declared a state of emergency early this month, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on Sunday set a date for general elections, saying the polls would be held no later than Jan. 9. The national and state assemblies would be dissolved on Nov. 20, he said, and caretaker administrations would govern the country until after the elections. Meanwhile, he stated his intent to remain a powerful president who would be "absolutely aboveboard and neutral" during the campaigning and voting.
Musharraf reiterated that he would resign from his powerful position as chief of army staff when he takes the oath of office for another five-year presidential term, probably later this month. Pakistan's Supreme Court, which is packed with pro-Musharraf judges, rules that he was legally reelected president in a controversial, indirect vote last October. "I shall take the oath of office as a civilian president as soon as possible," he said. In fixing an election date and promising to take off his uniform, both key demands of the United States other allied governments and of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, he was clearly making an attempt to defuse the heavy domestic and international criticism of his emergency decree and to reestablish some credibility. "This sets aside the aspersions, distortions and rumors [of people] doubting my intensions," he said.
Sounding resolute and tough, he firmly said he had no regrets for taking the hard line that made him increasingly unpopular at home and abroad. "I did right," said Musharraf, dressed in mufti, sporting an expensive blue suit, light blue shirt and dark tie. Declaring the emergency, which is akin to martial law, "was the most difficult decision I have ever taken in my life," he added. "It was indeed a bitter pill to swallow."
No matter how badly it tasted, Musharraf made it clear that he was not going to lift the decree anytime soon, making it clear that emergency rule would remain in place at least through the election. "There is no time limit on that," he said of the emergency. "Certainly the emergency is required to ensure peace and an environment conducive to elections in Pakistan."
Musharraf brushed away questions about how a free and fair democratic election can be held while his emergency decree has suspended constitutional guarantees, an independent judiciary and freedom of assembly. He pledged that most, if not all, of political detainees who number into the thousands and include key opposition politicians, organizers and activists, would be freed by polling time. "I expect all of them will get released and will be able to go into electioneering," he said. When asked how an election could be held under martial-law-like conditions, Musharraf's Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azim Khan said that past Pakistani elections have taken place in Pakistan during emergencies, for example, in 1971. The playing field will be level for all political parties Khan claimed. "The [emergency] rules apply equally, fairly with everyone who agrees to take part."
Such talk did not reassure a beleaguered and downtrodden opposition. It also raised the question whether anti-Musharraf parties would even bother to contest the election under the emergency decree. Ahsan Iqbal, the spokesman of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's party, said elections held under the emergency would be "fraudulent" as long as "thousands of opposition workers and leaders" are in jail and Sharif remains in exile in Saudi Arabia. Sherry Rehman, Bhutto's information secretary, complained that in the past few days "several thousand members" of her Pakistan People's Party have been arrested, and that 13 PPP women members of parliament were being held in prison under "utterly unhygienic" conditions and "spending torturous nights on ice-cold floors."
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