KARACHI, Aug 6: President Gen Pervez Musharraf has ruled out electoral adjustment with any party and reiterated that the existing assemblies would re-elect him as president. He also said that the leaders in exile would not return before elections.

Gen Musharraf was addressing legislators and nazims belonging to the ruling PML and People’s Party Patriots at the Chief Minister’s House on Monday.

According to sources, the president sidestepped the issue of his uniform and said he would talk about it after the elections, without specifying if he was referring to the presidential or general elections.

He emphasised that the present assemblies would not be dissolved before the expiry of their terms and said that the ruling PML, the Functional League and MQM were electoral allies and urged them to muster people’s support.

The sources quoted Gen Musharraf as saying that the country’s economic development was being threatened by violence, terrorism, and extremism.

According to the president’s spokesman, Maj-Gen (retd) Rashid Qureshi, Gen Musharraf said that last year the quantum of direct foreign investment was $6.7 billion but terrorism and extremism had affected the investment climate.

The spokesman said the president had called for collective efforts for rooting out terrorism and extremism.

The president, according to the spokesman, was also worried about the economic situation because investments were declining in the wake of increasing incidents of terrorism and extremism. Many countries had advised their citizen against visiting Pakistan, he said. His main concern, according to sources, was that if China also joined the list of such countries, Pakistan would be in serious trouble. In this context, he is understood to have referred to the killing and abduction of Chinese nationals working on various projects in the country.

Gen Musharraf emphasised the need for moving ahead and urged the “leaders and people to cooperate and work hand in hand to fight against this threat”.

Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim and others agreed with the president’s observations and extended their full support. They resolved to get Gen Musharraf elected as president in uniform from the sitting assemblies.

Later, speaking at a presentation, Gen Musharraf called for reducing the gap between policy formulation and implementation.

“We are concentrating on setting up industries across the country as it would help in poverty alleviation and job creation,” he said while addressing the presentation organised by the federal ministry of Industries, Production and Special Initiatives.

Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad, the chief minister and federal Minister for Production, Industries and Special Initiatives Jahangir Khan Tareen attended the presentation.

Stressing the need for involving private sector in setting up industrial estates, the president said that the government was considering easy availability of land to promote industrialisation. He also called for encouraging local and foreign investors.