KARACHI, Nov 19: Pakistan People’s Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto is in no hurry to resume the US-backed power-sharing talks with Gen Pervez Musharraf because the crisis has deepened since the imposition of emergency.
“We are not going to the former track of dialogue,” she said while talking to newsmen after a meeting with American Ambassador Anne Patterson who had called on her at the Bilawal House on Monday.
Her comments were considered significant, made after John Negroponte had urged both her and Gen Musharraf to resume the process of dialogue and save it from derailment.
“I have mentioned our concerns on the credibility of elections under Musharraf and steps should be taken to ensure free, fair and transparent election,” said Ms Bhutto who has convened her party’s CEC meeting on Tuesday.
She said her party wanted reconstitution of the Election Commission and an end to the emergency rule and media curbs.
“I have made it clear that we are interested in a roadmap for democracy, but we do not have the confidence that Gen Musharraf’s regime can give us that roadmap,” she said.
However, she avoided saying that she had completely ruled out a resumption of the dialogue.
Ms Bhutto was of the view that rising extremism in the tribal areas and Swat was the biggest threat to Pakistan’s integrity.
Replying to a question about Makhdoom Amin Faheem’s petition in the Supreme Court challenging the candidature of Gen Perveaz Musharraf,
Ms Bhutto said it did not amount to facilitating Musharraf but it was actually ‘deferment’.
The PPP chairperson said her party did not believe that free and fair election would be held and it was weighing its options. She said that the PPP had not yet decided on whether to take part in the elections.
