Musharraf fears Benazir, Sharifs presence during general elections: Pak Paper

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf fears that the presence of former Prime Ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, and MQM leader Altaf Hussain during general elections would jeopardise his future prospects, a Pakistani daily has claimed.

Islamabad, Aug 13 : Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf fears that the presence of former Prime Ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, and MQM leader Altaf Hussain during general elections would jeopardise his future prospects, a Pakistani daily has claimed.

"Clearly, the president fears that the elections would be jeopardised by the leaders' presence," the Daily Times editorial opined.

"He is either scared of too much agitation followed by violence for the elections or he is scared that their presence will hasten the process of the electorate's alienation from him. And that the Pakistan Muslim League (PML) will not be able to make the kind of showing it has been boasting about," the editorial of the paper said.

The daily further said that one faction of the PML want his (Musharraf) re-election only after the new assemblies are in place, but another much larger faction thinks that he should leave the job of the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) after being elected in September-October.

PML chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain was in the favour of imposition of the emergency in the country not because there was chaos, but because he wanted to postpone the general elections by another one year.

Musharraf's rejection of his proposal confirms that Chaudhry's mind was concentrated by prospects of failure at the polls, the paper added.

Commenting on the Bhutto-Musharraf dialogue, the daily said: "There is irony and paradox in the Bhutto-Musharraf dialogue. President Musharraf's decline equally cuts the ground from under her feet."

"The "judicial" victory scored by the PPP leader Aitzaz Ahsan against President Musharraf has in fact narrowed her negotiating turf. If President Musharraf goes, she will be condemned to confront a dominant clergy, a failing state and an economy ready to go belly-up."

ANI