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LONDON, June 22: President Pervez Musharraf on Sunday hinted at relinquishing the office of the chief of army staff before the three years time.
In an interview with BBC, the president said he agreed in principle that he should not hold two offices simultaneously but uncertain conditions back home required him to keep two offices.
“I do agree in principle that I should not be a combination of president and the chief of army staff and sooner or later I have to give up this post of chief of army staff, may be it is earlier than three years.”
“A lot is happening specially in our Frontier province. So, under these destabilized conditions all around, there is a requirement of my wearing these two hats. Once stability comes and let me judge it myself and I will judge it in all sincerity and honesty and I will give up the army chief’s post,” the president told the Breakfast with Frost television programme.
ANTI-TERROR WAR: The president claimed that the fight against terrorism was succeeding and Al Qaeda no longer existed as a unified network in Asia.
Asked if international efforts to combat terrorism were proving successful, he said: “In our region, certainly yes.”
“In our region I am very sure that the war against Al Qaeda is being won,” he stated.
“As a homogeneous body, under a command and control arrangement, they don’t exist any more.”
“There are limited numbers. We have got the top echelon, even the second echelon. I think we are dealing with something like the third echelon and have one or two more important personalities that are at large,” Gen Musharraf explained.
In the interview which was recorded during his visit to the UK, President Musharraf repeated his belief that Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was still alive.
“Initially, I thought he may be dead. I believe now that more chances are that he is alive,” he said.
TALIBANIZATION THREAT: President Musharraf said he believed there was no danger of Pakistan becoming an Islamic fundamentalist state as a vast majority of people were against Talibanization of the country.
“I sincerely think there is no danger, for the reasons I know the people of Pakistan. The people of Pakistan, a vast majority of them, and I mean every world of it, are against Talibanization or extremism or obscurantist view of Islam,” he observed.
The president said a vast majority of Pakistanis were “moderate and they want
a progressive and enlightened Islamic state”.
“And we are an Islamic state. We are Muslim, the people are staunch Muslims but they certainly are not for an extremist view of Islam. I am very clear about it. So, therefore, whatever is happening in Frontier province must not alarm the world, it is not the perception of the vast majority of people of Pakistan,” he said.
In reply to a question on enforcement of Shariat laws in the NWFP, he said: “Shariat is quite misunderstood in the world.”
President Musharraf said: “The bigger problem actually arises from certain, I would call them obscurantist or extremist, acts of forcing people against their wishes, dictating dresses of the people, moving against music, moving against billboards. These are acts of extremist nature what I call “Talibanization” which I am watching, and which one takes very seriously and one needs to nip these in the bud.”
“And certainly the whole nation does not want Pakistan to be “Talibanized”, the president added.
In response to a question on democracy, Gen Musharraf said it was functioning in Pakistan and “I think democracy is complete in Pakistan and I don’t think, there is any reason for Pakistan to be denied entry to the Commonwealth”. —APP/AFP
