Click to play videoNew Delhi: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has rejected US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's appeal to lift Emergency in Pakistan, saying that his decision was the best way to ensure peaceful elections in the country.
“I totally disagree with her,” General Musharraf said in an interview to The New York Times in Islamabad. “The emergency is to ensure elections go in an undisturbed manner.”
Rice had said: "The most important thing is to get out of this state of emergency so that something like normal life can return to Pakistan. You can't have free and fair elections with the kinds of restrictions on the media that you have, with the kinds of restrictions on assembly of opposition."
Musharraf rejected Rice’s statement and vigorously defended the Emergency. He also questioned Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto's plans to contest elections, saying: "Constitutionally today she has been prime minister twice, what about the third time? She is not legally allowed, she is not constitutionally allowed. Why are we taking things for granted?"
Asked when Emergency rule would end, he said: “I don’t know, I don’t know.” He rejected reports that the Emergency he imposed on November 3 is unpopular and claimed he had information from “several organisations” and feedback from politicians and friends that the move was popular.
The interview comes as US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte visits Pakistan this week to urge Musharraf to end emergency rule and hold elections, the State Department said on Tuesday.
"We continue to want to see elections move forward and move forward in a free, fair and transparent manner. We want to see the emergency decree lifted," US State Department spokesman Tom Casey told reporters, summarising Negroponte's message.
Negroponte would meet Musharraf, who seized power in 1999 in bloodless coup but was embraced by the United States when he agreed to help Washington in its struggle against al-Qaeda after the September 11 attacks.
Musharraf has suspended the constitution, sacked judges, locked up lawyers and rounded up thousands of activists in what is widely regarded as an effort to cling to power. Pakistani officials on Monday placed Benazir under house arrest for seven days in Lahore, a move that appeared designed to prevent her from leading protests against emergency rule.
Bhutto on Tuesday called for Musharraf to step down as president, dealing a blow to US hopes that the two might find a way to share power.
(With Reuters)
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