ISLAMABAD, 30 November 2007 — Pervez Musharraf promised to lift Pakistan’s state of emergency by Dec. 16 and restore its constitution before January elections, a key demand of his domestic opponents and foreign backers.
“I am determined to lift the emergency by Dec. 16,” Musharraf said in a televised address to the nation. “The elections, God willing, will be held free and transparent under the constitution.”
Hours after he was sworn in as a purely civilian president, Musharraf appealed to two former prime ministers recently returned from exile to drop their threats to boycott the Jan. 8 parliamentary elections.
“Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif have come back, and a level playing field has been given to (their parties). Now it is the responsibility of these and other parties to prepare for the elections, and participate fully,” he said.
But the main opposition leaders stood divided yesterday over January’s election, with Benazir saying her party now plans to take part and Sharif vowing a boycott.
“To take the process forward we have to take part, we believe, either to force the elections to be credible or — if it’s rigged — to demonstrate that it has been forcibly rigged,” Bhutto said in a telephone interview.
“The PPP (Pakistan People’s Party) is participating under protest but reserving the right to boycott subsequently,” she added.
Benazir welcomed Musharraf’s promise yesterday to end the emergency, as well as his resignation as army chief the previous day and his recent announcement of a date for elections on Jan. 8.
“Certainly these are good confidence-building measures, but more needs to be done,” including mechanisms for ensuring that the elections are free and fair, she said.
But Sharif said that an alliance of opposition parties led by his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz would boycott the polls, adding he would call a meeting with other parties including Benazir’s to persuade them to do the same.
“We are boycotting these elections,” Sharif told reporters in Lahore after a meeting of the All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM). “We will try to convince other political parties so that this boycott is effective,” he said.
Sharif said he would personally speak to Benazir and Maulana Fazlur Rehman, leader of Jamiat-ulema-e-Islam, “for a united boycott of these elections.” Qazi Hussain Ahmad, leader of the Islamist alliance, the Muttahida-Majlis-e-Amal, said he would also try to persuade fellow Rehman and other parties. Yet in a sign of the divisions in Pakistan’s fractious opposition, Rehman insisted he would take part in the elections.
The White House said yesterday it welcomes Musharraf’s plan to lift the state of emergency on Dec. 16. “We welcome this step,” said President George W. Bush’s spokeswoman Dana Perino.
Musharraf began a five-year term as Pakistan’s civilian president yesterday by calling on his former foes Benazir and Sharif for a political reconciliation. “I only hope that they will ... move forward toward a conciliatory, civilized, democratic and political environment in the future,” Musharraf said.
