Musharraf admits negotiations with political parties
Wednesday, 29 August 2007
ISLAMABAD, Aug 28 (PTI): President Pervez Musharraf has admitted that he's negotiating with all political outfits in Pakistan, including the parties of former Premiers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, in order to achieve stability in the country and get re-elected peacefully, a daily reported Tuesday.
"To get political stability in the country, talks and contacts with all political parties, including Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP), are under way. I will not let my eight years of hard work to turn Pakistan into a prosperous nation go waste," 'The News' quoted Musharraf as saying here.
The President hoped that keeping in contact with all the political parties would also help him to get re-elected in military uniform peacefully for another five-year term from the incumbent Assemblies "according to the Constitution and the laws" of the Islamic nation.
Reiterating that he would take the decision to doff his military uniform in accordance with the country's law, Musharraf said, "The Constitution permits me to remain in uniform by the end of the current year. But, the opposition would get an answer in this respect soon."
He, however, said that deposed Premier Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz should abide by the 'exile' pact according to which they're supposed to stay out of the country for at least ten years, but refused to confirm whether his emissaries were in London to negotiate a deal with them.
Stressing the need for unity between the ruling Pakistan Muslim League and its coalition parties, Musharraf said that they should solve their differences with mutual understanding instead of highlighting them in the media which might give the opposition an edge in the upcoming elections.
The President has again assured that free, fair and transparent general elections would he held on time.
Meanwhile: Pro-Taliban militants in northwest Pakistan released 15 paramilitary troops Tuesday after nearly three weeks in captivity, a tribal elder said. "They have handed over the 15 soldiers," the elder Ameer Mohammad Mehsud told Reuters. Mehsud was involved in negotiations to free the men.
The militants abducted 16 paramilitary soldiers in the South Waziristan region near the Afghan border on August 9. They later killed one of the soldiers, videotaping a teenaged boy cutting off the man's head.
Tribal elders said the militants later also released another four people, including a paramilitary officer and a government official, abducted in the same region last week.
Pakistan's rugged Waziristan region is a hotbed of militant support. It has never been brought under the writ of any government.
Many al Qaeda and Taliban members took refuge in Waziristan and other remote regions on the Pakistani side of the Afghan border after U.S. and Afghan opposition forces toppled the Taliban government in Afghanistan in late 2001.
Violence in Pakistan, mainly in Waziristan and other parts of its lawless tribal belt on the Afghan border, has escalated since the collapse of a peace deal with militants and an army crackdown on a pro-Taliban mosque in the capital last month.
Despite Pakistani efforts to clear out foreign militants and subdue their Pakistani allies, U.S. security officials say Waziristan and other border areas are sanctuaries for al Qaeda and the Taliban where they regroup and plot violence.
"To get political stability in the country, talks and contacts with all political parties, including Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP), are under way. I will not let my eight years of hard work to turn Pakistan into a prosperous nation go waste," 'The News' quoted Musharraf as saying here.
The President hoped that keeping in contact with all the political parties would also help him to get re-elected in military uniform peacefully for another five-year term from the incumbent Assemblies "according to the Constitution and the laws" of the Islamic nation.
Reiterating that he would take the decision to doff his military uniform in accordance with the country's law, Musharraf said, "The Constitution permits me to remain in uniform by the end of the current year. But, the opposition would get an answer in this respect soon."
He, however, said that deposed Premier Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz should abide by the 'exile' pact according to which they're supposed to stay out of the country for at least ten years, but refused to confirm whether his emissaries were in London to negotiate a deal with them.
Stressing the need for unity between the ruling Pakistan Muslim League and its coalition parties, Musharraf said that they should solve their differences with mutual understanding instead of highlighting them in the media which might give the opposition an edge in the upcoming elections.
The President has again assured that free, fair and transparent general elections would he held on time.
Meanwhile: Pro-Taliban militants in northwest Pakistan released 15 paramilitary troops Tuesday after nearly three weeks in captivity, a tribal elder said. "They have handed over the 15 soldiers," the elder Ameer Mohammad Mehsud told Reuters. Mehsud was involved in negotiations to free the men.
The militants abducted 16 paramilitary soldiers in the South Waziristan region near the Afghan border on August 9. They later killed one of the soldiers, videotaping a teenaged boy cutting off the man's head.
Tribal elders said the militants later also released another four people, including a paramilitary officer and a government official, abducted in the same region last week.
Pakistan's rugged Waziristan region is a hotbed of militant support. It has never been brought under the writ of any government.
Many al Qaeda and Taliban members took refuge in Waziristan and other remote regions on the Pakistani side of the Afghan border after U.S. and Afghan opposition forces toppled the Taliban government in Afghanistan in late 2001.
Violence in Pakistan, mainly in Waziristan and other parts of its lawless tribal belt on the Afghan border, has escalated since the collapse of a peace deal with militants and an army crackdown on a pro-Taliban mosque in the capital last month.
Despite Pakistani efforts to clear out foreign militants and subdue their Pakistani allies, U.S. security officials say Waziristan and other border areas are sanctuaries for al Qaeda and the Taliban where they regroup and plot violence.