January 10, 2008	Thursday	Zilhaj 30, 1428

LAHORE, Jan 9: Ghulam Mustafa Khar has advised Pakistan Muslim League (N) President Nawaz Sharif and Pakistan People’s Party co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari to boycott the election.

At the same time, he wants President Pervez Musharraf to quit the office.

Addressing a news conference at the Lahore Press Club on Wednesday, he said Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari should boycott the election because they had great expectations from the polls, but even if their parties emerged successful they would not be able to do anything for the people as long as President Musharraf was in office.

Musharraf should step down because he had not been able to do anything during the past eight years and could not be expected to do anything in future as well.

He was of the view that the government would not be able to hold election in the event of boycott by the PML-N and the PPP. The government, despite coming into power, would not last long if the elections were held because it would not be able to solve the problems being faced by the people.

Khar said he was worried about the safety of Benazir Bhutto from the very first day when she started negotiations for her return to Pakistan because Musharraf neither wanted to quit nor could he impose martial law due to expected US opposition. The only course left for him was vilification of prominent political leaders for reducing their popularity or facilitating their elimination.

He said the National Reconciliation Ordinance was used as a ploy to undermine the popularity of Benazir Bhutto. The blast in the rally on her return from exile was meant to terrorise her. She was assassinated in Punjab to create hatred against it in other provinces.

MQM leader Altaf Husain, he said, wasted no time in pointing out that corpses of three prime ministers had arrived in Sindh from Punjab. While Sharifs had returned to Pakistan despite government resistance because they loved their homeland, Altaf was reluctant to return despite sharing power because he wanted to return in a different country.

He said the conditions prevailing in the country were similar to those before the dismemberment of Pakistan. The PPP could avert the crisis, but it would have to act before subsiding of the wave of its popularity because the government had started plotting for its breakup. He said he would have been among those who perished during the Liaquat Bagh blast, but he was thrown out of the PPP as a result of a conspiracy because a large group within it was working for the agencies.

He claimed that a cell, headed by former Punjab chief minister Pervaiz Elahi, had been formed to get rid of the political leaders like Imran Khan and Qazi Husain Ahmad who refused to compromise with the government. A large number of women had been recruited for use against the politicians because all of them could not be assassinated. The rulers were also spreading anarchy in the country.

Answering a question about his future plans, he said he could join the PML-N or the Tehrik-i-Insaaf or launch his own political party. He would take a final decision after consulting his friends and allies, Khar said.