ISLAMABAD, Aug 5: Pakistan on Monday denied it was under foreign pressure over its electoral process and stated that there was no ban on any party or individual to contest elections, provided they were eligible under rules already announced by the government.
This was stated by Foreign Office Spokesman Aziz Ahmad Khan at a briefing in reply to a question about the reported foreign pressure on Islamabad to permit former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif to take part in the polls. The spokesman countered the question, asking: “Is there any ban?”
The US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, was reported to have suggested recently that no one should be debarred from contesting elections.
The spokesman, however, stressed that it was Pakistan’s “internal matter” to hold the elections according to its law and added that those who fulfilled the formalities were free to contest the polls.
He said that India’s refusal to allow the universally accepted practice of permitting foreign observers to oversee the elections in occupied Kashmir clearly indicated that New Delhi sought to hide something from international observation.
In reply to another question, the spokesman said that there had been no change in Pakistan’s policy towards the stage-managed assembly elections in occupied Kashmir, that they could never be regarded a substitute for the plebiscite promised in the UN resolutions to determine the future dispensation of the disputed state in accordance with the wishes of Kashmiri people.
He rejected suggestions aired by some of the foreign dignitaries visiting Islamabad, including Mr Powell, that elections in occupied Kashmir could be “a step towards the settlement” of the dispute and asserted that only a plebiscite as stipulated in the UN resolutions could meet the demand of the Kashmiri people to let them determine their future dispensation.
The spokesman dismissed any comparison between the Azad Kashmir assembly elections and those held by India in an “illegally annexed part of the disputed state”. He pointed out that while Azad Kashmir elections were not claimed a substitute to the plebiscite, the polls in occupied Kashmir had resulted in thousands of deaths, untold sufferings and atrocities committed on the Kashmiris for the last over 12 years to force them to give up their unshaken demand for right to self-determination.
Asked for reaction on the Indian decision to buy more foreign combatant aircraft (British Jaguars), the spokesman termed it an “unfortunate action” which would disturb the regional balance and lead to a new arms race in the subcontinent adding to the already tense relations between the two countries.
Referring to a report by the International Committee of Red Cross that there were 1100 to 1200 Pakistani prisoners in Afghanistan, the spokesman assured that the government was in a constant contact with the Kabul authorities and hoped that they would be freed and repatriated to Pakistan soon.
The spokesman said he presumed that France would soon resume work on the construction of submarines being built in Karachi. The work was suspended earlier this year following the death of 12 French technicians in a terrorist attack on a bus in Karachi. The matter, he said, came up under discussion during a recent visit to Islamabad by the French foreign minister but, he added, there was much more remained to be sorted out before the resumption of work.
Asked for Pakistan’s response to the US threat to launch a military assault on Iraq for eliminating President Saddam Hussein, the spokesman said Pakistan reaffirmed that all international disputes should be resolved peacefully in accordance with the UN resolutions.