Extremists must not win: Musharraf

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf, who completed seven years in power Thursday, has warned that Pakistan as envisaged by its founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah will be "no more" if extremists wrest control from moderates like him.

"The tussle will be between the moderates and the extremists. I am a moderate and strongly believe that the moderates must win. If the extremists win, then Quaid-e-Azam's (Jinnah's) Pakistan will be no more there," he told reporters at an Iftar party  in Islamabad Wednesday night.

Musharraf came to power in a coup on October  12, 1999 posing as "reluctant coupmaker" who had to launch a "counter coup" to thwart the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's "conspiracy" to oust him as Chief of Army.

After the Sept 11, 2001 terror attacks on US, he deftly washed away the image of a "Jihadi General" who staged  the Kargil war with the help of Islamic militants and soon emerged as the "front line ally" in US President George W Bush's war against the Al Qaeda and Taliban.

Musharraf, who had addressed the nation during previous anniversaries of his assumption of power, took even his bitterest critics by surprise by projecting the "worst case scenario" of Jinnah's Pakistan withering away if moderates lose to extremists in Pakistan.

He stressed that when he said that Jinnah's Pakistan may be lost, "I mean every word of it",  a remark seen as an attempt to placate mainstream moderate leaders like Nawaz Sharif and another former Premier, Benazir Bhutto.

Noting that no individual means anything in the life of a nation, Musharraf said, "Individuals will keep coming and going. Everyone has a life and everyone has tenure. It is this nation which will continue. So irrespective of anyone's attitude towards me, the greater objective is Pakistan not me. I am here temporarily, Pakistan will continue."

But the general quickly doused speculation on whether he was willing to compromise with Benazir or Sharif, saying, "elections will be held in 2007, no change in that, and they will be fair and transparent. All parities would take part in it. These two individuals (Bhutto and Sharif) would not participate. I stand by that."

He declined comment on reports that he was negotiating

with Bhutto to get her party's support, but hoped that the general election would be won by moderates, and that "the forces of extremism go down."

Musharraf said the creation of a moderate Pakistan was not only in the best interest of its people, but also the only way to dispel the growing impression in the world that Pakistan was an 'irresponsible' and a 'rogue state'.

During his recent trip abroad, Musharraf said, people everywhere asked about Al Qaeda, Taliban, rise of militancy, links of these militants with those operating in other countries, and nuclear proliferation and whether it was still continuing despite the arrest of disgraced scientist A Q Khan.

Through a highly organised military operation, the government had managed to dismantle or eliminate Al Qaeda from the country, including the tribal areas, he claimed. Even if some elements were left behind, they were on the run, he said.  

With Al Qaeda out of the way, the focus had shifted to the Taliban, and the way to isolate the militants from common tribesmen he said, and therefore the government struck a deal with tribal elders. All this was being done with a well-thought-out plan, though there were no guarantees of 100 per cent results, he added.  

On the Baloch nationalist movement however, Musharraf struck a hard line, comparing the Pakistan army operations against the rebels, including the killing of tribal leader Nawab Akbar Bugti, with that of the Indian Army's operations against Sikh militants in the 1980s.  

Without directly naming any country, Musharraf said a foreign hand was involved in creating law and order problem in the province, besides the anti-progress and anti- democratic elements which had been blackmailing the government and trying to challenge its writ.

The "writ of the government will never be challenged. I will never allow it. Nobody dares to challenge the writ of the government. Let that be a warning to everybody. We will take action", he said.

He said the remaining rebel camps should surrender or else "we will sort them out, that is what we will do. However we will do everything and anything for Balochistan. That is my inner belief", he said.

More reports from Pakistan