We are sick of extremist parties: Musharraf

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, NOV. 13. The Pakistan President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, today said that people of Pakistan were ``sick and tired'' of the attempts made by extremist religious parties in the country to drag Pakistan into a ``pit of ignorance''.

The parties that have launched an agitation in recent weeks for his ouster in protest against the Government decision to side with the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan have become irrelevant, he said.

A report circulated by the Associated Press of Pakistan said before his departure from New York, Gen. Musharraf told Pakistani presspersons that ``the nation is sick and tired of them, (extremists), and fed up with them, wondering what is going on. They are dragging us into the pit of ignorance, when the nation does not want to fall back into that pit of ignorance''.

The people of Pakistan were not extremists and did not want extremism. The extremists had ``played their cards'' and had ``nothing up their sleeve''. He had spoken ``firmly'' with the United States President, Mr. George W. Bush, during their meeting ``without mincing words''. ``I believe in substance'' he said.

He had made it clear to Mr. Bush that Pakistan had a feeling that it had been ``abandoned and betrayed'' in the past. He was referring to Pakistan's stand that despite assisting the U.S. in its fight against the erstwhile Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in 1980, Washington subsequently withdrew its military and political support to Islamabad specially after it embarked on an ambitious nuclear programme which led to the imposition of a string of sanctions.

All the sanctions were summarily lifted a few weeks ago soon after Gen. Musharraf announced his decision to back the U.S. military operations against the Taliban. Gen. Musharraf said Pakistan was a nuclear power and could not be ignored as it was strategically located at the crossroads of Central Asia, Middle East, and South Asia. ``We can not be ignored but we have to be positive about ourselves'', he said.

Reiterating his desire to hold general elections by October 2002, he, however, did not refer his plans to continue as President even after the polls. He also ruled out plans to constitute a national government or inducting political leaders into his Cabinet. ``The chances of an interim arrangement of changes in the Cabinet or the establishment of political government are zero''.

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Section  : International
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