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Sharief may cancel UN trip as domestic scene worsens

Pakistan was reconsidering a planned visit by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief to New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly later this month, Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz said today.

Aziz told reporters that a decision on Sharief's visit and the question of Pakistan signing the nuclear Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty would be taken within one week.

''There is no decision on Sharief's visit. A decision will be taken in the next four to five days. It is being considered,'' he said.

Aziz gave no reason for the possible cancellation of Sharief's trip.

But the reconsideration comes in the wake of a series of protests by Islamic and traditional opposition parties in a ''Sharief out'' campaign since he ordered guerillas to leave the strategic Kargil heights in July under world pressure.

Yesterday, opposition parties joined forces to form a massive alliance in their latest bid to force Sharief to step down and announced a new protest campaign.

The Karachi-based Muttahida Qaumi Movement has called a general strike tomorrow backed by other opposition groups. They plan to hold a large protest rally on Saturday accusing the government of harassment and extra-judicial killing of its supporters.

Several opposition parties say they are planning more protest rallies and strikes later in the month.

Aziz said Pakistan had announced last year it would sign the test ban treaty only in an atmosphere that was free of pressure and ''coercion'' and added that this had not happened yet.

''We are assessing what the United States Congress is planning to do,'' he said, explaining that certain Pakistan-specific amendments were under consideration in Washington.

Pakistani newspapers reported today that Sharief's proposed visit to New York may be cancelled as the government was re-thinking its strategy on the signing of the test ban treaty.

Pakistan's foreign secretary Shamshad Ahmad said yesterday that worries about additional nuclear testing by India made it difficult for Islamabad to sign the CTBT.

Sharief told the UN General Assembly last year that Islamabad would sign the test ban treaty by September 1999, provided there was no ''coercion and pressure.''

But Pakistani officials have said recently that they felt that an atmosphere of coercion was still there.

UNI

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