An extraordinary encounter with Musharraf

As Pakistan votes tomorrow in its postponed elections, Jemima Khan is granted a rare interview with Pervez Musharraf, the country's beleaguered leader.

'Since you were so kind as to greet us in London at Downing Street last month, the President would like to return the favour," announces Major-General Rashid Qureshi, President Pervez Musharraf's PR man over the phone. Only in Pakistan could the government's head of spin be a retired major-general. He is referring to my last encounter with the President on 28 January – when, along with a 2,000-strong, placard-waving, slogan-jeering mob, I protested on the main road outside 10 Downing Street while Musharraf discussed democracy with Gordon Brown over lunch inside. On the way in he waved at us. Clearly he's a man who is not afraid of confrontation. Much to the justifiable fury of every journalist in Islamabad, he has now granted me an exclusive half-hour interview despite or perhaps because of the fact that I have recently described him as one of the most repressive dictators Pakistan has ever known.

On the way to the Camp Office in Rawalpindi, I cross the bridge and pass the petrol station, which mark the spots of two recent attempts on the life of the now deeply unpopular President. I have a horrible fear that, bamboozled under the spotlight of his renowned charm, I may start to simper. My ex-husband, one of the President's most vocal critics, has already told me he thinks this is all a terrible idea. "It will be misinterpreted in Pakistan. Besides, you'll be too soft on him," he said.

The Camp Office turns out to be an old colonial building which used to be the HQ of the northern command under the British. With its delicately carved, wooden, double-height ceilings, sweeping central staircase, marble floors and ornate carpets, it's not hard to see why the President chose this as his private office in Rawalpindi. His residence is just up the ...

Full post @ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/an-extraordinary-encounter-with-musharraf
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Bhutto ghost dominates Pakistan election

Declan Walsh in Faisalabad | The Guardian | Friday February 15 2008

Shielded behind bulletproof glass and surrounded by armed police, the Pakistani opposition leader Asif Zardari told supporters yesterday that his assassinated wife, Benazir Bhutto, had come to him in a dream.

"She said 'I am with you, and I am with the people,'" he said, drawing a roar of approval from the crowd at his party's last rally before next Monday's tensely anticipated general election.

A sense of trepidation has gripped Pakistan as the country faces its most troubled poll in decades amid suicide bombings, rigging allegations and the dramatically crumbling popularity ratings of President Pervez Musharraf.

While Bhutto is gone, her ghost hangs heavily over the campaign. Pollsters predict a massive sympathy vote in favour of her Pakistan People's party that could dislodge Musharraf from power. A poll by the International Republican Institute published on Monday found that half of Pakistanis planned to vote for Bhutto's party, 22% for Nawaz Sharif's party, the Pakistan Muslim League (N) and just 14% for Musharraf's group.

But her supporters accuse the government of planning to rig the vote, stoking fears of violent upheaval once the results have been declared. Musharraf warned yesterday that he would brook no post-poll protest. "Nothing of the sort will be allowed," he told a meeting in Islamabad yesterday. "In this situation of extremism and terrorism, no agitation, anarchy or chaos can be acceptable."

Elections will be "free, fair, transparent and peaceful", he promised.

The gathering clouds have punctured the normally boisterous election spirit. More than 40 people, mostly opposition supporters, have died in bombings at political rallies in the North West Frontier province over the past week.

Yesterday's PPP rally in Faisalabad, a major industrial city in Punjab province, was only the second addressed by Zardari, who stood behind a green bulletproof shield. The political power of Bhutto, and the challenge facing her husband in replacing her, was evident. Her face dominated giant posters that hung from the walls; supporters played tapes of her speeches in the streets outside.

Full story @ http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/15/benazirbhutto.pakistan

Musharraf hits out at ‘biased’ opinion polls...how can he be so sure?...

Musharraf’s in his recent address, at a conference ‘Unite for Elections’ organized by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, rejected opinion surveys conducted by foreign organizations and has said that opinions of 3,000 people cannot be taken as the opinion of 160 million people of the country. Exactly this is what his opponent been saying since the start of 2007 that by having support of few men he shouldn’t think that he is the most popular leader. How does Musharraf feel now?

He said foreign organizations and NGOs, especially those conducting such surveys are disturbing the peace of this region and they are playing with the peace of the world. How on Earth can these opinion polls play with the peace of the world and how do opinions disturb the peace in regions?

Musharraf further said that Media and foreign organizations by their opinion polls are trying to create perception that elections would be rigged which would push the country into a bind and seriously harm the country. One must tell him that all over the world such opinion polls and exit polls are conducted before and after elections. Election processes elsewhere are not harmed by such polls. Why does he feel that it will harm us here? In fact this is prevalent in the democratic societies that back Musharraf to their last coin.

He also said that the NGOs who conducted these polls are biased and are against the government. Doesn’t this show his sheer uneasiness and tyranny to a verdict of people that would be unfavorable to his Q league? Isn’t that obvious from his statements that he is not prepared to accept defeat of his party and his statement that “pre-judging election results raise undue hopes and might result in violence during and after the polls” hints that his party won’t be losing and if other parties are not going to accept such results, force would be used to silence the opposition. Aren’t such statements from him highly objectionable as it shows a lot of malice on his side if people are not going to accept elections results that would be against their wishes? Wouldn’t such attitude disturb peace?

By stating that “All those who think that they could disturb country’s peace must not test the resolve of the government.” Clearly shows that they are ready to crush people if people are going to stand against a verdict which is not in accordance with their wishes.

He said that “people should not to be misled by any deceit and false propaganda and differentiate between reality and myth”. How he is claiming that such opinion polls are deceits, false propaganda and a myth and not a reality. One must ask, does he know the results already. How can he be so sure of the results?

Aim H. Akhund

Why should we vote

Coming elections are perceived to be the most important elections for decades to come. Reasons are: a) people are going to vote after an assembly has for the first time completed its term and sadly so, because it survived under the grace of the Army, b) people have had enough of one man deciding the fate of 170 million, c) people are without jobs, flour, sugar, gas, electricity, oil, education, health, leaders, security and above all freedom to express that they are feeling utterly deprived due to the present regime’s mess ups and sheer arrogance towards their needs and desires, d) we know that if these elections are rigged then Pakistan will be in a situation graver than the Dhaka fall of 1971, e) it is clear that the Army rule can not be the future and only public rule is the way forward for us and we know only by voting in these elections we would able make the Army realize that we don’t want them anymore, f) only by voting in these elections we are going to get our independent judiciary back, g) only by voting we will be able to counter the pre-poll riggings, the higher the voters turnout the lesser the chances of riggings, g) voting would be the best accountability of those who have oppressed us, usurped power and deprived us of all our rights, h) by voting we will be able to show US, West and all those states who have attacked our sovereignty that we don’t support their actions and we want to be a free nation just like any other nation in this world, i) by voting we will be able to stop atrocities of our establishment in NWFP, Baluchistan and FATA, j) by voting we will be able to stop the unrest in Pakistan that is created by in silencing our people in NWFP, Baluchistan and FATA, k) by voting we will be able to free our media from state’s undue control, l) by voting we can show the establishment that we don’t support the coward and shameful detainment of our heroes of the judiciary and lawyers, m) only by voting we can assert that we don’t support the expulsion of national heroes from one province to an other and Pakistan and all its provinces belong to every Pakistani no matter where he lives or what his believes are, n) by voting we would be supporting the cause for which our judiciary, lawyers, media and other civil groups who have bled and devoted their lives, o) by voting we will show the dictators that ultimate power rests in people and that’s now the will of people of Pakistan, p) by voting we will prove it to the world that we don’t want to be dictated and we can and will decide on our own what is good and what is bad for us, q) by voting we will not only elect a parliament for just one term but we will set this as an example for people voting in all the elections that would be held after this one, r) by voting we will be able to address issues of abuses of human rights and emancipation of the weaker sex, s) by voting we will make our founding fathers proud who bled and gave their lives for the independence of their coming generations, t) by voting we will show and express to the Army and all the vested groups that enough is enough and we are not prepared to compromise with the tyrants any more…so for the sake of our own good we must vote.

Asim H. Akhund

In Tribal Pakistan, Religious Parties Are Foundering

By CARLOTTA GALL | New York Times

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Senator Asfandyar Wali, the leader of an opposition party, the Awami National Party, is campaigning for the elections next week from the safety of his bed, under a quilt and propped up on bolsters for his bad back at his country home outside Peshawar.

Ill health aside, Mr. Wali is staying home because suicide bombers are seeking to kill him, his party has been warned by high-level government officials. There have been two bomb attacks on his party’s election gatherings in the last week. Two candidates have been killed, one in a suicide bombing and one in a shooting in Karachi.

Yet despite the attacks and the limited campaigning, his party is expected to do well in the parliamentary elections on Monday. The religious parties that for the last five years have governed the North-West Frontier Province and Baluchistan Province, which border Afghanistan and the tribal areas, are foundering.

Since being swept to power in 2002 on a wave of anti-Americanism and sympathy for the Taliban after the American invasion of Afghanistan, the mullahs here have found that the public mood has shifted against them.

People complain that they have failed to deliver on their promises, that they have proved just as corrupt as other politicians and that they have presided over a worsening of security, demonstrated most vividly in a rising number of suicide attacks carried out by militants based in the nearby tribal areas.

Full story @

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/14/world/asia/14pstan.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=In+Tribal+Pakistan

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