Musharraf swears in caretaker govt
Pakistan’s military leader President Pervez Musharraf pressed ahead with plans for parliamentary elections today by swearing in a caretaker government, despite the threat of an opposition boycott.
The move came after the house arrest of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was lifted late last night, hours before the arrival of a top US diplomat who is expected to urge General Musharraf to end emergency rule.
“The government has withdrawn the detention order,” Zahid Abbas, a senior policeman, said near the barricaded house in Lahore where Ms Bhutto has been confined for three days.
“The house is no longer a sub-jail but security will remain for her own protection. She’s free to move and anyone will be able to go to the house.”
However, trucks and tractors were still parked across the road leading to the house early today, and police would not let reporters cross the cordon.
Oxford-educated Ms Bhutto, a two-time former prime minister who returned from exile last month to launch a political comeback, was detained on Tuesday to prevent her from leading a protest against General Musharraf’s November 3 declaration of a state of emergency.
She has the highest profile among the thousands of political activists who have been detained in a government crackdown on dissent that has sparked an outcry at home and abroad against General Musharraf.
The general, who seized power in a 1999 coup, insists he is still moving towards a restoration of democracy and civilian rule that Western governments believe could help stabilise the nuclear-armed country as it battles rising Islamic extremism.
A caretaker government led by a Musharraf loyalist takes office today to prepare the country for critical parliamentary elections due by January 9.
At least one of the independent news channels removed from cable TV services on November 3 were available again today.
However, General Musharraf’s emergency – declared ostensibly to prevent political chaos and give authorities a freer hand against militants linked to al-Qaida and the Taliban – still faces stiff criticism from countries including the US, his key international backer, that the ballot cannot be fair unless the emergency is ended.
US deputy secretary of state John Negroponte was expected to arrive in Pakistan later for talks on the deepening political crisis.
It was unclear whether Negroponte would meet Ms Bhutto.
The US State Department said he expected to meet “with whomever he wants to see”, including General Musharraf and opposition politicians.
US president George Bush “wants the state of emergency to be lifted. And it is up to President Musharraf. He has the responsibility to help restore democracy to the country”, White House press secretary Dana Perino said.
Ms Bhutto has called on opposition parties, who deride General Musharraf as a dictator trying to shore up his own fading power, to form a national unity government to replace him and organise the elections.
Her proposal, in a telephone interview with The Associated Press, was quickly accepted by her arch-rival Nawaz Sharif, although the exiled former leader said the priority was to get Supreme Court judges ousted by General Musharraf reinstated. He also proposed an opposition boycott of the elections.
The general has long managed to keep the opposition divided and has refused to quit, saying he expects to relinquish his role as army chief by the end of November, but stay on as president. He suggested emergency rule would remain in place during the elections.
Ms Bhutto, who received a visit from a US diplomat while still under house arrest yesterday, said the United States was worried about a power vacuum if General Musharraf was ousted.
The Americans “worry about what would happen if there was not a smooth transition, and they worry about what would happen if Musharraf left and there would be a vacuum. So that is a concern, and a valid concern,” she said.
