March 2, 2006	Thursday	Safar 1, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, March 1: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) will deliver a letter to US President George Bush during his visit to Islamabad this week urging him “not to support military dictatorship and ensure free and fair elections” in Pakistan, a senior parliamentarian of the party said on Wednesday.

“The letter would be handed over to Mr Bush through US Ambassador in Pakistan Ryan C Crocker,” the PPP leader, who did not want to be named, told Dawn.

He said party leader Benazir Bhutto had approved the draft of the letter but mode of its delivery was yet to be decided. He, however, said that the letter would be delivered to the US ambassador before Mr Bush’s arrival in Islamabad, the date of which has not yet been announced because of security reasons.

In the letter, he said, the PPP would inform the US president that Gen Pervez Musharraf was “exploiting” the war against terrorism and using it for his personal gains and to prolong his rule. “At present, no war against terrorism is going on in Pakistan,” he said, quoting from the proposed letter.

He said the letter would tell Mr Bush that the military dictatorship was itself a form of terrorism and could not fight a war against terrorism. It would remind him one of his previous statements that democracy was the best tool to fight terrorism.

The PPP legislator said the party would ask the US president to play his role in ensuring free and fair election in Pakistan and would point out to him how General Musharraf had kept leaders of the two most popular political parties out of elections.

He said the PPP was not planning any protest demonstration on the US president’s arrival as it believed such a course would not serve any purpose. However, he said, his party had decided to acquaint Mr Bush with the prevailing situation in Pakistan and about its concerns over the US support to the military dictatorship.