LAHORE, May 17: President Pervez Musharraf will seek another term after his current tenure ends in 2007, federal Information Minister Sheikh Rashid told newsmen here on Tuesday. “He (Gen Musharraf) will continue as president even after 2007. However, nothing can be said at this stage whether he will retain his army chief’s office as well,” the minister said. About talks with various political leaders, Sheikh Rashid said the government was engaged in ‘indirect dialogue’ with several leaders, including Ms Benazir Bhutto, Asif Ali Zardari and Shahbaz Sharif, but not with Nawaz Sharif and Qazi Husain Ahmed.

He, however, refused to give reasons why the government did not talk to the MMA president whose alliance was in power in the NWFP and Balochistan. He denied reports that there was any rift in the ruling Pakistan Muslim League. “There is no rift in the PML and Chaudhry Shujaat Husain will continue as its president,” he added.

Regarding former Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali’s assertion that the PML had failed to deliver, Mr Rashid said that there was no truth in it and the economic growth was evident from the increase in the GDP this year. When it was pointed out that media curbs had been imposed through the recently-promulgated Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2005, he said anomalies in the law, if any, would be removed through amendments.

The minister said the schedule for local bodies elections would be announced after the budget. He refused to comment on reports that Gen Musharraf had asked the PML to make seat adjustments (with other parties) in the local bodies elections.

He condemned the recent police attack on journalists in Islamabad and tendered an apology. He said that talks on Kashmir with India were under way and the next two years would be important in this respect. He said that Pakistan would take the people of Kashmir into confidence on any development on the issue and would not accept any solution against their will.

Earlier speaking at a seminar, Sheikh Rashid said that no-one could impose curbs on press freedom and the government could do not so even by denying advertisements to certain newspapers. The seminar on ‘Press Freedom in Pakistan’ was organized by the Punjab University’s Mass Communication department in collaboration with Unesco and the Pakistan Press Foundation.

Sheikh Rashid said it was the era of media and over 700 private TV and radio channels would be allowed in a year to operate in the country. He said the next three years would be important for politics of this region.