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South Africa: Country Joins Calls to End Pakistan Emergency
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Business Day (Johannesburg)
15 November 2007
Posted to the web 15 November 2007
John Kaninda
Johannesburg
THE South African government yesterday joined the chorus of international calls for Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to lift emergency rule in his country .
Addressing the media from Cape Town via video link, Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad said that tensions in Pakistan "were too great to be solved by martial law".
Pahad also expressed concerns over the "many things" -- an allusion to the many arrests and intimidation of opposition leaders, lawyers, civil society and media -- that have happened in Pakistan since emergency rule was proclaimed on November 3.
In a clear indication that the situation was not conducive to free and fair elections planned for January, Pahad said: "Democracy has to return."
Pahad also voiced concern over nuclear security in Pakistan. "In such a volatile situation, it is important that the country's nuclear stock be safely guarded. Pakistan has to reassure everyone that this will be the case."
Opposition parties said 15000 of their supporters had been detained since Musharraf suspended the constitution on November 3, sacked his chief justice and imposed curbs on the media.
Among those arrested in the city of Lahore under emergency rule are Imran Khan, Pakistan's cricket captain turned MP, and former prime minister turned opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.
Bhutto, under house arrest , confirmed this week she would not share power with Musharraf and said she would join opposition parties to persuade the president to quit.
Khan was the third leader detained or exiled as Musharraf rebuffed pressure from the US to prepare for elections.
"There is only one message Musharraf is sending to the whole world by these arrests," Ahsan Iqbal, spokesman for exiled former premier Nawaz Sharif, said in a phone interview. "That he cannot hold free and fair elections with the entire opposition behind bars."
US President George Bush, who is sending D eputy S ecretary of S tate John Negroponte to Pakistan this week to urge Musharraf to lift emergency rule, views his Pakistani counterpart as a key ally in the fight against terrorism.
He has given the Pakistan government more than $10bn in aid since 2001, but has threatened to withhold some aid if the emergency is not lifted.
Bhutto said the army chief had plunged the nuclear-armed nation into crisis and wants Bush to withdraw support to convince Musharraf to quit as president. "Washington has to make a critical decision now," Bhutto said yesterday from the eastern city of Lahore .
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"In the past, we've tried to find solutions around Musharraf, but now public opinion isn't allowing that. I certainly hope that Washington will go with the people of Pakistan."
Negroponte would travel to Pakistan later this week to meet senior officials and call for free and fair elections, s tate d epartment spokesman Tom Casey told reporters yesterday.
Bhutto said her party might boycott parliamentary elections due by January 9 if Musharraf did not leave office. Khan spoke to Bhutto yesterday and said he supported her call for Musharraf to step down as president.
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