The News..NEW YORK: President Pervez Musharraf mesmerized a crowd of Pakistani elite jam-packed in the grand ballroom of Sheraton Towers with his 80-minute oratory delivered half through his notes and half coming right from his heart.
The crowd was almost the same who had heard Ms Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif on their holy sojourns to the Land of Fortunes in yesteryears. They always gave a big hand to Pakistani leaders but to Musharraf, flanked by Abdul Sattar Edhi, they gave a standing ovation.
"Give me seven years and I'll change the complexion and culture of politics in Pakistan", he pleaded. He told them that 41 percent of the sitting crop of leaders has been disqualified owing to the condition of being graduate. The ladies in the hall greeted him when they learnt 60 seats have been kept for them in the parliament.
"You may be surprised to find a man of uniform talking about politics", he said with an awareness of his own predicament, "but let me tell you, I firmly believe in democracy". The crowd responded with a big hand. "I am no usurper of power, I am going to give it over to the elected people and my role would be that of a neutral empire", he said. "They (politicians) had been dragging generals into politics but that insinuation would stop now as they (generals) would be sitting in the National Security Council having a ratio of 8 elected and 5 in uniform." He spelled out his belief, "Army must not wield power", he declared.
Pervez Musharraf lamented the catastrophic national losses, "Who would be responsible for Rs 1300 billion of the nation squandered away by Pakistani politicians in ten years prior to his takeover?" They gave not a single fruitful project to the nation during their decade of misrule, he told Pakistani community.
Giving a resume of his performance in the office, he enumerated the projects in hand – Mirani Dam, Thal Canal, Kichhi Canal, National Highway from Karachi to Kabul, Coastal Highway, M-2, strategic Gawader Port, Lakhra Mines, Lawai Tunnel, Railway standing on its feet, IT thrust, the rising KSE graph, Forex reserves from petty $700 million to an all-time high $ 8 billion, lowering GDP from 53% to 47 %, record high remittance of overseas Pakistanis, controlling fiscal deficit, easing the pile of foreign debts, positive economic indicators by world financial institutions. The announcement of each of his achievement was punctuated with thunderous applause.
All the projects are well on their way to completion, he declared promising a better future of the nation since he won their trust. No delays, no kickbacks and no corruption at any level, he assured.
About the law and order situation, Musharraf had to cut a sorry figure. The fallout of operation in Afghanistan and extremists elements scampering into Pak territories did further messed up law and order situation, he agreed. He hit at foreign agencies fomenting terrorism in Pakistan. About harboring extremists, he said, they were isolated cases. He disclosed that tribal areas were fully under control. He also claimed reining in ISI, the premier intelligence agency and quoted recent arrests of 10 Al-Qaeda men from Karachi by ISI, which indicated clearly that the agency was not siding with extremists. He dispelled the impression that ISI is a state within state.
Musharraf was forthcoming in assuring that the environment for investment in the country is better, the fallout of operation in Afghanistan notwithstanding. To the Pakistani community, he paid his best compliments who, he said, were gems individually but he doubted their ability to be a homogeneous community. He also urged them to be aware of elements fomenting seeds of dissent among them.
APP adds: "I will give up powers to use Article 58 (2) B when NSC is in place after October elections," the president told the Pakistani Americans.
"We are preventing Martial Law by introducing constitutional reforms and bringing balance between power brokers through a system of checks and balances," the president said giving a brief background of the recent constitutional reforms. "I am of firm opinion that the army must not govern and must do its own job."
AFP adds: President General Musharraf said on Friday that he would be forced from power if he ever dropped the stipulation that Kashmir was the core dispute governing relations with India.
While calling on India to return to the negotiating table, Musharraf said that any talks had to accept the "reality" that the bitter territorial dispute over Kashmir was the main issue undermining peace in South Asia. "No leader. No government of Pakistan can ever side-step on the issue of Kashmir ... because the people of Pakistan, each individual, is involved," he said in an address to the Asia Society in New York. "It is not possible. Nobody can do it. He'll be eliminated. He'll be out of the government. He'll be defeated. His government will be defeated," he said.
Musharraf said it was also time that India dropped its opposition to outside mediation in the Kashmir question. "If bilateralism is not producing results then certainly mediation or third party involvement is the answer," he said, adding that the United States was better positioned to play a role than Saarc. "Saarc is an impotent organisation quite frankly," he added. |
