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Bhutto warns Musharraf of people power

G Chandrashekhar in Washington

Former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto warned the military government of General Pervez Musharraf of a Philippines-type people's movement to overthrow him if he failed to begin a dialogue with the Opposition, withdrew the army to the barracks and restored democracy in the country.

Bhutto, who is in the United States to lobby the Bush administration for restoration of democracy in Pakistan, told the WNVC television channel that the people of Pakistan would be left with no option but to to take their right to determine their destiny if the military government declined to hold a dialogue with the political parties.

She was encouraged by the recent developments in Manila where President Joseph Estrada was compelled to resign after months of street protests. Bhutto said she was reminded by a similar display of people power in Pakistan in 1988 when democracy was restored and George Bush was then the US president.

Stating that Pakistan itself was born out of a struggle for a independent Muslim nation, Bhutto recalled that people staged movements even during post-independence to oust the military regimes headed by Ayub Khan and Yahya Khan.

While acknowledging that General Musharraf came to power under trying circumstances when Pakistan was faced with a crisis and its unity threatened, Bhutto said the time has now come for him to restore democracy in the country.

She said unfortunately General Musharaf was speaking in terms of the whole country being pitted against one leader or another if democracy is restored in Pakistan. This was the language previous Generals Zia-ul Haq and Yahya Khan spoke when they were in power and ended up harming the country, she alleged.

Pakistan lost the Siachen Glacier when General Zia was in power and half of the country during General Yahya's regime, she said adding that she has been persuading Musharraf's military government to enter into negotiations with the joint Opposition. ''If we fail in our efforts, the political parties have to stand by the people and raise their voices" she warned.

Asked whether she was in Washington to seek the Bush administration's support, Bhutto said in an inter-dependent world she did not see anything wrong in her urging the international community led by the United States to take steps to restore democracy in Pakistan.

Both General Musharraf and ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif have been seeking the US government's support on various issues in the past, she pointed out.

Defending her stay in London during the military rule in Pakistan, she said politicians in South Asia have similar problems and most of them are forced to stay out of the country. She recalled that Iran's spiritual leader Ayatollah Khomeini had stayed away from Tehran during the Shah's rule. Bhutto also revealed that she would return to Pakistan soon.

Restoration of democracy in Pakistan would lead to stability in the South Asian region, she said, adding that India should understand this reality.

She was concerned about reports by think-tanks describing Pakistan as a failed state and the predictions of intelligence agencies that Pakistan would fragment and disintegrate into several states soon.

The former Pakistan premier said there has also been a steady decline in economic indicators since her government was ousted from power in 1996 and that she was seeking to end the doomsday scenario by restoring democracy in the country.

Bhutto suggested a soft and porous border to create a congenial atmosphere for ending the Kashmir dispute and warned any other major step would create more problems than solving the issue.

She was also opposed to the proposal of Line of Control being converted into an international border saying that would hardly resolve the yearnings of the Kashmiri people for self determination. Any solution to the dispute should be in tune with the relevant UN resolutions adopted in 1948, she said.

UNI

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