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Benazir wants U.S. to `restrain Musharraf'

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD July 16. The Chairperson of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, today warned the international community that unless the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, was stopped from brazen unconstitutional acts, stability of the country and the region would be in "grave danger".

In a statement released by her party here, Ms. Bhutto alleged that a military dictator was again pulling down Pakistan.

Mrs. Bhutto, who is on a self-imposed exile in Dubai, is currently on a tour of the United States. According to senior PPP leaders, the objective of her visit was to impress upon the Bush Administration to "restrain" Gen. Musharraf from "undemocratic" acts and pressure him to hold free and fair general elections in Pakistan in October.

``The Musharraf regime, in a blatant attempt to curtail the strong public support for the Pakistan People's Party and to stop my personal participation in the coming elections, has resorted to curtailing Pakistan's Constitution and law'', the statement said.

Ms. Bhutto alleged that Gen. Musharraf had passed an "absentee law" with retrospective effect to sentence persons living overseas without a hearing even when defence counsel represented them, and then announced that such persons could be barred from contesting the October elections. She condemned what she termed as the "subjugation of Pakistan's Constitution and law to service the political ambitions of Musharraf's dictatorial junta".

She alleged that for five years (including the two-year tenure of Nawaz Sharif), attempts were made to "destroy the PPP through trumped-up charges, kangaroo courts and illegally watering-down our Constitution". She maintained that in five years, no evidence of wrongdoing by the Government headed by her twice was presented, and none ever would be presented.

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