From Our Special Correspondent

LONDON, May 25: Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said that the best way to fight fundamentalism is to take the nation and the parliament along, “Musharraf alone cannot fight” such elements.

In an interview to Sir David Frost of Al Jazeera on Friday night, Nawaz said the United States must not support an individual, Musharraf, as against the 160 million people of Pakistan.

“It (the US) should support democracy and not dictatorship, because Musharraf alone cannot fight this battle. If this battle is to be fought by anybody it’ll be by this 160 million people of Pakistan. So therefore President Bush needs to understand this point of view,” he said.

Nawaz added then if president Bush was preaching democracy in Afghanistan, if he was preaching democracy in Iraq, he must stop supporting a uniformed president in Pakistan, “This is absolutely essential. So if an effective battle is to be put up against terrorism it has to be through the people of Pakistan.”

Answering a question, he claimed that he was still the prime minister of Pakistan and Rafiq Tarrar the president, “but then of course … Mr Musharraf applied the might is right formula and he took over the country by force. And he is still the president occupying that position unconstitutionally. It was an extra-constitutional step that he took, overthrew my government and then forcibly became the president of the country.”

When asked to elaborate his recent remark that Musharraf ‘is a gone man’ Nawaz said things were uncertain in Pakistan these days, “You cannot predict anything. I have been two times prime minister of Pakistan. I do not know where the country is heading today. And the country doesn’t have a constitution. Mr Musharraf introduced a 17th Amendment, which is called the Legal Framework Order, to make himself the president of the country, and it has added to the confusion in the country.”

When asked if he was all set to go back to Pakistan on June 30 this year, Nawaz answered in the negative and said he had so far not given a date for his return, “I haven’t made any such announcement. But I want to be back in Pakistan, it is my country.”

Answering a question about his relationship with Benazir Bhutto, he said they had a very cordial relationship, supported each other’s point of view (and) “We are in one alliance. It is called the ARD, which is the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy. We have signed together a charter of democracy, which says that there will be no parleys with dictators, military dictators; which says that the constitution of 1973 will be restored to the position of 12th October 1999; which says that we will strengthen the institutions like judiciary; which talks about good governance. And I stand by that charter of democracy and I am not having any parleys or any dialogue with the government at all.”

Answering a question, he said the two parties (PPP and PML-N) had not taken any decision to fight the forthcoming elections jointly or separately. “Previously we’ve been contesting against each other. Sometimes she won, sometimes we won. But if we fight elections independently obviously whosoever wins the elections, or whosoever has the upper hand, he will or she will form the government.”