Sharif asks US to end its fixation with Musharraf

WASHINGTON: Describing President Pervez Musharraf as 'Pakistan's one man calamity', former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has urged the United States to look beyond the General and focus on his country which was 'in flames'.
     
"My country is in flames. There is no constitution. Judges have been sacked on a whim and arrested, political leaders locked up, television stations taken off the air.... Extremism has assumed enormous and grave proportions," Sharif said in an Opinion Piece in The Washington Post.
     
"All of this is the doing of one man: Pervez Musharraf," the Pakistan Muslim League (N) chief, who was ousted by the military ruler in a bloodless coup in 1999, said.
     
Claiming that dictatorship was fuelling extremism in Pakistan, Sharif, who was unceremoniously deported by the General to Saudi Arabia in September after he tried to return to Pakistan from a seven-year exile, reminded Americans that President Bill Clinton had refused to shake hands with
Musharraf or be photographed with him during a Presidential visit in 2000.
    
"People took that as a gesture from a friend who wished Pakistan well. By refusing to associate with a dictator, President Clinton essentially won the hearts of the Pakistani people."
    
"That was the policy that should have been pursued. That is the policy that should be pursued now. America should not alienate 160 million Pakistanis by supporting a dictator who prefers rifles to reason," Sharif said.
     
Sharif urged the US and other western countries to ignore, what he called, the "lies" being spread by Musharraf that his exit will lead to anarchy and the extremists will take over Pakistan.
     
Sharif said Musharraf first struck at "the core of democracy" on Oct 12, 1999, when he dismissed his government "at gunpoint".
     
"On November 3, Musharraf struck again at democracy. He abrogated the constitution and declared a state of emergency. For Musharraf , the constitution is nothing but a piece of paper that can be crumpled and discarded," Sharif pointed out.
     
He said "these are the wages of dictatorship... Musharraf hopes that other nations will prefer his despotism to the anarchy he claims would erupt were he to leave office. This is a lie that America and other Western nations should not accept."
    
Sharif said Musharraf's "self-serving contention that a free vote would result in extremists coming to power" was utterly flawed and intended to frighten the West.
    
He said the people of Pakistan should have the chance to elect people they trust. "My party and Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party enjoy tremendous support across the country. Both of these parties are more progressive and forward-looking than the general's ineffective autocracy."
    
In the article with the dateline Jeddah, Sharif said were there to be free and impartial polls, the world would see the rise of moderates in Pakistan.
     
"We are a moderate country. It is dictatorship that is fueling extremism. Return to the people their right to vote in free elections, and you will see the results.
     
"When Musharraf's misadventures in Kargil in 1999 brought us close to nuclear confrontation with India. I, in close consultation with Clinton, defused the situation. I remember President Clinton saying: "The world should thank Nawaz Sharif for averting a nuclear conflict between Pakistan and India," Sharif said, adding the US "must support the Pakistani nation -- not a single individual."