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Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jjkirk who wrote (43261)	9/14/2002 3:11:50 AM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 50167

President Mush in New York dismissed speculation that the ISI was running a “government within a government.” He referred to the encounter in Karachi this week which had resulted in the capture of 10 Al Qaeda terrorists, one Saudi, one Egyptian and eight Yemenis. (Ramzi Binalshibh, a prime suspect in last year's 9/11 terror carnage, has been arrested in Pakistan and were said to be now in US custody.) Six Pakistanis had been injured and two of the terrorists had been killed. The ISI had collaborated in the operation, he added. The President said President Bush had thanked him personally during their meeting for this successful operation. The President said the “top echelons” on Pakistani terrorists like Riaz Basra and Akram Lahori were gone. While Basra had been killed, Lahori was in jail though “no judge wants to try him.” He pointed out that no major terrorist act had taken place in the last three months. “There are just one or two terrorists at large now,” he added amid cheers. Turning to politics, Musharraf said he was a military man but a democrat. “You have to believe me,” he added. He then went into a long description of the new political structure that he was trying to put in place in Pakistan, assuring his audience that it would be truly democratic and there should be no misgivings on this count. ‘I have been told that I have brought about a silent revolution in Pakistan,” he said. He appealed to Pakistanis to try to look at the positive rather than always emphasising the negative. “The glass in not half empty, he is half full,” he said. Musharraf declared that the October elections would be “free and fair, impartial and transparent.” He said he would like everyone to come and see. When the Japanese prime minister told him that Japan would like sending a delegation to Pakistan to observe the election, “I told him to send 10 delegations,” he told the meeting. He also disagreed that “the same people” were going to be returned to parliament. He said some of those who had been disqualified were fielding their sons and progeny but these people were different as they had been “educated abroad.” He narrated gleefully how out of the 217 members of the former National Assembly as many as 100 or 41 percent had been disqualified for lack of a graduate degree. He was sure that in the new parliament there would be as many as 75 women which would “change the culture” of the new assembly and “bring some sobriety to it.” He also stressed that he personally had nothing to do with the disqualifications that had come about. The entire authority in this area lay with the Election Commission, he added. About the constitutional amendments he had made, he conceded that they had come under a lot of criticism in Pakistan. He said it was wrong to charge that he was assuming all powers, when, in fact, he was giving up power. The future prime minister will be the person administering the country and taking all the decisions. He would just be supervising and keeping an eye on things. He explained the structure of the National Security Council which he emphasised was a well-balanced body. ‘“When I step down,” he said, “only four members of the 10-member Council would be men in uniform.” The NSC would take “institutionalised decisions,” he stressed. The President also praised the late Field Marshal Ayub Khan, giving him credit for bringing in an industrial revolution in Pakistan and building major development projects including “Warsak, Mangla and Tarbela” as well as ushering in a “green revolution” and founding the city of Islamabad. Pakistan’s status was high during his time, though he did do a few bad things and his son did bad things, a reference to former captain Gohar Ayub. President Musharraf also declared that the tribal areas would be integrated with the NWFP, adding, “and it will be done.” He told a banquet for Pakistani-Americans that the Pakistan army which had gone into the tribal areas in pursuit of terrorists had receive excellent cooperation from the locals.