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US largely upbeat on ISLAMABAD, Oct 18: The United States today welcomed..more
Bhutto
backs Musharraf ISLAMABAD, Oct 18: Pakistan’s exiled former leader Benazir Bhutto,....more Japan
for clear Pak TOKYO, Oct 18: Japan, Islamabad’s biggest aid donor, said..more |
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US urges Pak to WASHINGTON, Oct 18: The United States has urged.....more
Taliban
leader vows not DUBAI, Oct 18: The leader of the Afghan Taliban....more Iran
calls for stability TEHRAN, Oct 18: Iran today called for stability and...more PML,
PPP welcome ISLAMABAD, Oct 18: Plitical parties, including....more Pakistan
to have interim ISLAMABAD, Oct 18: Caretaker Cabinets are nothing....more |
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US largely upbeat on Gen Musharraf’s speech ISLAMABAD, Oct 18: The United States today welcomed a pledge by Pakistan’s new Army ruler, General Pervez Musharraf, to restore democratic rule but lamented that no timeframe was set. "Yes, we were disappointed at that, the lack of specific timeframe, but we were also heartened by his pledge that the military would remain in power only as long as absolutely necessary," Ambassador William Milam said. "This is something we are going to remind him of from time to time. I am sure others will too," the Ambassador said, referring to European Union and other calls for a speedy return to civilian politics. Mr Milam was commenting on Musharraf’s last night broadcast in which Pakistan’s chief executive pledged that the Army would rule no longer than necessary after toppling the Government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a bloodless coup last Tuesday. He was broadly upbeat in his assessment of Musharraf’s keynote speech and welcomed an offer to renew dialogue with India and a pledge to seek a representative Government in Afghanistan, a key irritant in Pakistani-US relations. Mr Milam dismissed speculation that Musharraf had "extremist" Islamic leanings and said he was viewed as someone Washington could do business with. Musharraf seen as moderate "He seems like a pragmatic, moderate person, intelligent and patriotic and wanting to turn this country around," he said. The US Envoy said Washington would take a wait-and-see attitude on future International Monetary Fund loans to Pakistan on which the crumbling economy is largely dependent. "This is part of a wait-and-see position we have got in general. We will wait and see how things go in the next few weeks" he said. Pakistan has only 1.5 billion dollars in foreign exchange reserves, barely four months import cover, and faces a hard currency crunch over its balance of payments and loan repayments, financial analysts said. The US Envoy welcomed Musharraf’s offer to renew dialogue with India months after the two nuclear-capable countries came close to a fourth war because of the occupation of India’s Kargil heights by Pakistani-backed infiltration. He also welcomed Musharraf’s offer to withdraw troops from Pakistan’s borders with India and hoped that the new regime would extend the withdrawal to the military Line of Control. "I was heartened by his offer of dialogue with India and the unilateral concession he offered to make... We would like it go to go further. "We hope both sides will get into a serious unconditional dialogue as soon as they can," said Mr Milam, who also welcomed Musharraf’s pledge to observe nuclear restraint. Representative Government in Kabul Mr Milam said that Musharraf’s call for a representative Government in Kabul was welcomed by Washington, which has been pressing the ruling Taliban to set up a broad-based administration to satisfy all ethnic and political factions. But he regretted there was no clean-cut commitment to crack down on terrorism and Saudi-born terrorism suspect Osama Bin Laden, who is a "guest" of the Taliban and is charged over the bombings of US African Embassies last year which killed 200. "We would have liked to have heard something on terrorism and and, shall we say, anti-terrorism and Osama Bin Laden," the Ambassador said. "It seems unlikely to me that a real representative Government would be a supporter of terrorism." Pakistan is a key supporter of the Taliban, an Islamic movement which controls 90 per cent of the country but is not recognised as a legitimate Government by the international community because of war, drug production and Bin Laden. Mr Milam said he had been assured by the military that Sharif, his brother Shahbaz, and other members of his Government, who have not been seen since the takeover, were in good health. "We have inquired and been reassured about their health and safety and well being. And I think that is really what concerned us," he said. (REUTERS) |
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Bhutto backs Musharraf crackdown on graft ISLAMABAD, Oct 18: Pakistan’s exiled former leader Benazir Bhutto, convicted earlier this year for corruption during her rule, praised coup leader General Pervez Musharraf’s plan to crack down on graft. Ms Bhutto was dismissed as Prime Minister late in 1996 on accusations of widespread corruption and abuse of power by people in her Government. "I welcome general Pervez Musharraf’s bold proclamations to establish true accountability against all those who have damaged our nation thorough their own greed and abuses," Ms Bhutto said in a statement faxed from London. "As I have been consistently and continually stating for three years, the PPP (Pakistan People’s Party) and I remain steadfast that we did not abuse the trust that the people of Pakistan placed in us." Musharraf said in his speech yesterday that one of the reasons behind last week’s coup was that a lack of accountability had led to "corruption of horrendous proportion, threatening the very basis of our society". Ms Bhutto said on Friday she had "nothing to hide" from an investigation into politicians’ bank accounts by the new military Government. Pakistani authorities have ordered the accounts of leading politicians frozen, including those of two-time leader Bhutto and her arch-rival Nawaz Sharif, the man the military ousted as Prime Minister in the bloodless coup. Ms Bhutto also praised the announcement that there would be a ‘’unilateral military de-escalation’’ on the tense border with India. "I applaud General Musharraf’s unilateral reduction of forces along our Eastern borders, and hope that the new administration of Prime Minister (Atal Bihari) Vaypayee will respond in kind," Ms Bhutto said. Musharraf called for "unconditional, equitable and result-oriented dialogue" with India to solve their disputes, particularly over the Kashmir. Ms Bhutto also repeated her call for the military to establish an interim Government and set a date for elections as quickly as possible. DPA adds: "The new accountability process shall bring to light the deeds of those who have abused the public trust and robbed our nation of its strength and vitality," Bhutto, who is living in England, said last night. Meanwhile, news reports today said that the deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif might face "accountability" on a number of charges. Sharif and his close business associates could also face charges of laundering money within and outside Pakistan, the newspaper the news reported today, citing an unnamed military spokesman. Sharif alone could face charges of evading taxes worth 60 million dollars, bank fraud and forgery worth ten million dollars and misuse of public funds for improving personal property, the paper said. In a mounting crackdown against defaulters who have evaded paying back loans to banks, the military regime has put names of 2,500 company owners on the Exit Control List (ECL) to stop them from leaving the country. These 2,500 people own 400 companies and firms who owe 70 billion rupees (1.3 billion dollars) to banks, the reports said. General Musharraf took over power last week in a bloodless coup and has given four weeks to the loan defaulters to voluntarily clear their outstanding dues or face the consequences. (REUTERS) |
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Japan for clear Pak democratic process TOKYO, Oct 18: Japan, Islamabad’s biggest aid donor, said today that Pakistan’s new military ruler should set clear procedures and a timetable for restoring democracy in his country. "We consider it important for Pakistan to indicate a concrete process for restoring democracy — including procedure and timetable," top Government spokesman Mikio Aoki told a regular news conference. In his second broadcast to the nation since taking power five days ago in a bloodless coup, Pakistani General Pervez Musharraf late yesterday promised the armed forces would not remain in charge of the Government any longer "than is absolutely necessary." But Musharraf failed to say how long this would be. He also offered an olive branch to India, announcing a "unilateral military de-escalation" on the tense border between the two nuclear-capable rivals. Western Governments were studying Musharraf’s remarks for signs that he would meet a demand for a return to civilian rule within a fixed timeframe — or risk losing the international financial aid on which its sickly economy depends. Japan is Pakistan’s biggest bilateral aid donor and as of the end of March 1998, Japan’s total bilateral financial assistance to Pakistan totalled more than one trillion yen (9.4 billion dollars). But Tokyo has kept a freeze on fresh yen loans to Islamabad since the country’s nuclear tests last year. (REUTERS) |
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US urges Pak to withdraw more troops, undertake CBMs WASHINGTON, Oct 18: The United States has urged Pakistan’s new military ruler General Pervez Musharraf to expand his announced withdrawal of troops along the country’s international border with India to include forces on the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir and initiate other Confidence Building Measures to ease tension with New Delhi. Welcoming Musharraf’s offer to resume unconditional and result-oriented dialogue with India in his first policy address to the nation yesterday, US State Department Spokesman James Rubin urged him to undertake other Confidence-Building Measures (CBMs) that could lead to a lessening of tension between the two neighbours. The US believes it is critically important for Pakistan to begin to resolve its differences with India... We welcome measures such as the unilateral drawdown of forces along the International Border with India. We hope this move could be expanded to include forces along the Line of Control in Kashmir, he said in a statement hours after Musharraf’s address. Rubin also welcomed Musharraf’s pledge to restore democracy in Pakistan but expressed disappointment over his failure to lay down a definite date for its restoration. Musharraf took over power after overthrowing Premier Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday and declared a state of emergency in the country. We welcome his pledge to work for a return to democracy and his promise that the armed forces will not stay in charge any longer than necessary. At the same time, we are disappointed he did not offer a clear timetable for early restoration of contitutional, civilian and democratic Government. We call upon him to do so now. (PTI) |
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Taliban leader vows not to hand over Bin Laden DUBAI, Oct 18: The leader of the Afghan Taliban movement said in remarks published today that his movement would not hand over Saudi Arabian dissident Osama Bin Laden to the United Nations, despite international sanctions. But Mullah Mohammad Omar told the London-based Arabic-language Al-Hayat newspaper that his movement would not allow Bin Laden to stage attacks from Afghanistan. Omar said Bin Laden was "a Muslim who fought against the communists in Afghanistan and handing him over, for us, is as difficult as leaving a pillar of Islam". The United Nations Security Council on Friday imposed sanctions to make the Taliban surrender Bin Laden for trial on charges he plotted the 1998 bombings of U.S. Embassies in Africa. Omar said the sanctions, which he described as "illegal and arbitrary" were dictated by the United States. He reiterated a call for a committee if Islamic scholars from Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia to be set up to look at Bin Laden’s case. Al-Hayat also said that Omar appeared pleased with the military coup in neighbouring Pakistan, which toppled the Government of Nawaz Sharif, saying he hoped it would be to the benefit of the Pakistani people. He also disclosed that the ousted Pakistani Prime Minister had demanded that the Taliban hand over Pakistani nationals suspected of involvement in sectarian strife in Pakistan. But he said the Taliban had replied that it would not allow Afghan territories to be used as a staging point for attacks against anybody. (REUTERS) |
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Iran calls for stability in Pakistan TEHRAN, Oct 18: Iran today called for stability and a return to civilian rule in neighbouring Pakistan after last week’s military coup there. State radio quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi as saying that Iran sought "stability and security" in Pakistan, where Army Chief Parvez Musharraf ousted the Government of Nawaz Sharif in a bloodless coup last Tuesday. "The Islamic Republic is keen for Pakistan to adopt policies safeguarding the interests of the region and the world", he was quoted as saying. Iran hopes that an elected Government will be set up in Pakistan as soon as possible, and that democratic organs will begin their work’’, he said. Iran had already expressed concern over events in Pakistan. Relations have been tense between Tehran and Islamabad as they support opposing sides in the civil war in neighbouring Afghanistan. (REUTERS) |
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PML, PPP welcome General Musharraf’s announcements ISLAMABAD, Oct 18: Plitical parties, including deposed Premier Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (PML), have welcomed new Army ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf’s announcement of setting up a National Security Council (NSC) saying his speech last night was realistic. Reacting to Gen Musharraf’s address to the nation last night, PML vice-president Ejazul Haq welcomed the formation of the NSC and said the Army strongman had done what Sharif should have done. I congratulate Gen Musharraf. He has fulfilled my long-standing desire by establishing the NSC, Haq, the son of Pakistan’s last military ruler the late Gen Ziaul Haq, said today. Leaders of Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), which ruled the country for 11 years after Gen Ziaul Haq died in a plane crash, also welcomed Gen Musharraf’s address and said the new dispensation’s direction seemed to be more realistic, pragmatic, sincere and goal-oriented. PPP stalwart Syed Iqbal Haider termed the speech as pleasantly unusual and said he sounded more like a sincere and committed well meaning Pakistani rather than an Army chief. Haider, a former law minister, said the new Chief Executive of the country had candidly ident Ied his targets and set a very positive precedence by declaring his own assets publicly, and hoped that this would be followed by all his colleagues and would-be members of the proposed NSC and cabinet. Anothr senior PPP leader Choudhury Ahmed Mukhtar said the address was realistic, and added, he did so realistically because it is not possible for somebody to undo the wrongs of decades in a short time’’. (PTI) |
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Pakistan to have interim cabinet with a difference ISLAMABAD, Oct 18: Caretaker Cabinets are nothing strange to Pakistan, but the one promised by new military ruler General Pervez Musharraf has a difference — a political and economic manifesto. The country has had five caretaker cabinets in the past 11 years of political turmoil beginning from the last days of the longest-serving military ruler, General Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq. All of them were installed to oversee elections after the ouster of a Prime Minister in a stop-go process that many hold responsible for Pakistan’s increasing instability. Previous military rulers have pledged to bring the one thing that Musharraf failed to deliver to the likely anger of Pakistan’s Western backers — the holding of elections. Musharraf, in power since a bloodless coup last Tuesday, said in a broadcast to the nation yesterday that a Cabinet of ministers to be named by him would work under the guidance of a National Security Council at the top of his administration. It will have a tough seven-point agenda including economic revival and accountability of politicians. Under Pakistan’s constitution, which Musharraf suspended through an emergency proclamation on Friday, new elections must be held within 90 days after a Government is dismissed and the National Assembly is dissolved. No time-frame Musharraf has dismissed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s 31-month-old Government, but has not dissolved the 217-seat National Assembly, thus escaping the necessity to hold fresh elections even when the constitution is revived. He has promised a return to "true" democracy without giving a time-frame. Pakistan’s first caretaker cabinet was set up by Zia when he sacked his own hand-picked Prime Minister, Mohammad Khan Junejo, in 1988. It was retained by then acting president, Ghulam Ishaq Khan, after zia died in a plane crash on August 17, 1988. Headed by a senior minister, Mohammad Aslam Khattak, rather than an interim Prime Minister, the Cabinet functioned until the November 1988 elections won by Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, a former PPP loyalist turned opposition leader, was named first caretaker Prime Minister when Ishaq Khan sacked Bhutto’s Government in August 1990 on disputed charges of misrule. He remained in office until elections in October, which were won by Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (PML) amid charges of vote-rigging. Short-lived cabinet Balkh Sher Mazari, a PML dissident, headed the country’s most short-lived caretaker cabinet named in April 1993 after Ishaq Khan dismissed Sharif’s Government. That cabinet disappeared unceremoniously after about a month when the Supreme Court reinstated Sharif’s Government. The most celebrated of all of Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Ministers was Moeen Qureshi, a former World Bank Vice-President, who was named for the office in July 1993 after Sharif and Ishaq Khan both resigned under an Army-brokered deal to end the power struggle between them. Mr Qureshi also tried to introduce economic and administrative reforms in his three months while preparing the elections and annoyed Sharif by criticising some of his high-cost projects. But most decrees issued by his Government for those reforms were allowed to lapse as Benazir Bhutto’s second Government formed after the elections had its own agenda. Meraj Khalid, a former Bhutto loyalist-turned-critic, became the country’s last caretaker Prime Minister named after then-President Farooq Leghari dismissed Bhutto’s Government. Khalid headed a cabinet of Bhutto’s opponents whom she blamed for what she called computer-rigging of February 1997 elections that gave Sharif a landslide victory. (REUTERS) |
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