Musharraf moving towards limbo clinging on to lame duck Bush: Nawaz Sharif

Former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif has said that President Pervez Musharraf was losing ground by the day and that his US counterpart George Bushs support was also losing its significance because he (Bush) too was facing the same fate in America.

London, May 4 : Former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif has said that President Pervez Musharraf was losing ground by the day and that his US counterpart George Bush's support was also losing its significance because he (Bush) too was facing the same fate in America.

He said that Musharraf was losing out on all fronts amid ongoing issues like judicial crisis, the rising extremism, insurgency in Balochistan, increasing cases of suicide bombing, creeping Talibanisation, revolt in the tribal areas, depleting water resources, diminishing power generating capacities and destruction of national institutions, including his own.

"More than half of American population has withdrawn their support from Bush, so Musharraf who is already in deep waters domestically, would at best have the support of an American president who has already become lame duck before time and who now needs vetoes to govern," the Dawn quoted him as saying.

He said that Musharraf's seven-year rule had turned Pakistan into an ungovernable country, and that in order to bring it back from the brink, all political parties, irrespective of their ideologies, should join hands instead of looking here and there for crumbs.

In an interview given to the paper at his party's international headquarters in London, he described the current situation in Pakistan as highly disturbing. "Frankly I do not know which way we are heading, where is Musharraf taking Pakistan, I have no idea. I have been two times prime minister of Pakistan, and I am at a loss to understand which way we are heading," he said.

About the ongoing judicial crisis over the suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Khan, he said the ongoing struggle of the bar and bench was the best thing that could have happened to Pakistan. "I never thought the protest of the bar would last for more than a couple of days, but the kind of unity and tenacity they have shown in the face of the awesome power of the military-led government and the support that they have garnered from the civil society and the educated classes as well as the intelligentsia has given me hope and reinforced my belief that the people of Pakistan will one day soon rise against the tyranny of military dictatorship," he added.

He maintained that the people had come out on the streets not to influence the relations between the judiciary and the executive. "It is not their job, but they are angry at the way the Constitution was violated by the executive in the process, the cup of their patience seems to have overflowed in the face of increasing high-handedness of one man in uniform."

Parrying the question if Benazir Bhutto had used him through the ARD and Charter of Democracy to enhance her own bargaining position vis-`-vis her negotiations with Musharraf, he said: "The CoD is a great document, it is the need of the country, we are happy and proud that we have been able to bring up a document and together we have signed it. We respect that document and if we get a chance either in the government or in the opposition we will make sure that we will implement this document in letter and in spirit, somebody else does it or not I don't know but we are duty bound and given our pledge to implement it, it does not matter if one or the other signatory of document were to violate it, it will remain the rallying paper for the democratic minded people of Pakistan."

ANI