ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari said yesterday that his party did not recognize Pervez Musharraf as a constitutionally-elected president and wanted him to step down gracefully.
Speaking at a press conference in Nawabshah, Zardari said the next president of the country would be from the People’s Party.
When asked about his reluctance to impeach President Musharraf, Zardari said, “We do not oppose the idea but it would be better if President Musharraf resigns voluntarily. That would set a good precedent.”
Zardari said forces supportive of dictatorship were conspiring against the ruling coalition and democracy in the country.
He said the sacrifices given by the PPP for democracy would not go to waste. “Pakistan People’s Party has saved this country and we are fully committed to strengthening democracy.”
Responding to a question, he said that PPP would strengthen its alliance with Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N because it wants all parties to equally participate in a successful democratic process.
He said Rs.38 billion had been allocated in the federal budget for poverty alleviation and a huge amount would be allocated for the same purpose in the next budget. Zardari said the PPP would soon name its candidate for the presidency.
36 killed in clashes
Rival militant factions clashed in the Khyber region near the Afghan border yesterday as the toll from two days of fighting rose to up to 36 dead and dozens wounded, a government official said.
The region, home to the Khyber Pass through which vital supplies for Western forces in Afghanistan pass, had been virtually free of militant violence until this year but security has deteriorated in recent months.
The latest violence began on Saturday when loyalists of one militant leader, Mangal Bagh, who is vying to control the area, attacked a stronghold of rivals led by Ustad Mehboob in the Teerah Valley. The two sides were fighting with rifles, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades and there were conflicting accounts of casualties. “There’s a lot of speculation but we have reports of 12 to 15 dead, from both sides, and dozens wounded,” said a government official in the region who declined to be identified. Other reports put the toll at 36.
Mehmoob’s group, Ansar-ul-Islam, said over its FM radio station they had killed 18 members of Bagh’s Lashkar-e-Islami and captured 10. The fighting was not near the main road through the Khyber Pass to the Afghan border but residents said more militants had recently been using the road, adding to a sense of insecurity.
Pakistan’s ambassador to Afghanistan was kidnapped in February while traveling along the road. He was freed in May.
Many supplies for the American military and other foreign forces in landlocked Afghanistan go through two crossing points on the Afghan-Pakistani border, one at the top of the Khyber Pass and the other to the southwest, at the Afghan town of Spin Boldak.
— With input from agencies
