August 11, 2008	Monday	Sha’aban 8, 1429

GUJRAT, Aug 10: Federal Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar has said the ‘establishment’ is neither favouring President Pervez Musharraf nor supporting the coalition partners.

Talking to Dawn at his office here on Sunday, the defence minister said the Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervaiz Kiyani had said on many occasions that the army would not involve itself in politics.

Being optimistic, Mukhtar said, the government had the numbers required to impeach the president and chances of impeachment motion’s success were 100 per cent or even more.

He said that charges against the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) were baseless and the government was not conducting any probe into these allegations as it had full confidence in its agencies.

He dispelled that impression that the government was siding with the United States and India by sidelining China and said that China was Pakistan’s longstanding ally.

But at the same time, he said, the Pakistani government had very good relations with the United States and it was also trying to build up good ties with India.

He said the government believed in expanding business with its partners, particularly neighbours, which would secure our borders in return as the new trade policy had been chalked out keeping in the view the benefits of regional trade on the pattern of European Union.