Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz Sunday said PPP leader Benazir Bhutto is free to come to Pakistan but laws of the land will apply to her like any other citizen. In an interview with CNN, he said the people had a strong reaction to remove corruption cases against Benazir Bhutto.
There are several cases of corruption against Benazir Bhutto. Now under certain laws immunity is given not just to her but everybody who was involved in corruption cases during a certain period, he added.
However, he said, people of Pakistan have gone to the Supreme Court against this particular law and now the court is looking at whether this law meets requirements of the constitution.
To a question about return of Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto, the Prime Minister said their cases are different. Nawaz Sharif was sentenced by courts for offences he had committed and then through a plea bargaining mechanism he left the country and said he would not come back for ten years and the Saudi government was the interlocutor and intermediary and guaranteed the whole deal, he recalled.
To a question, the Prime Minister said the presidential election was in line with the constitution. It was held by an independent election commission, he added.
The key point is President Musharraf secured 57 percent of the vote. "Whether opposition had participated or not we had comfortable majority in the Electoral College which constitutes all the assemblies in Pakistan. President Musharraf had a convincing victory." He said, "the court is now finalising the legal issues surrounding the election and we hope that the issue would be put to rest in the next few days."
He said President Musharraf agreed to become a civilian president by giving up his uniform. "His lawyer has stated in court that he will doff uniform once he is officially elected as president. He will remove his uniform and will have a single office which will be civilian President of Pakistan", Aziz said adding,"In fact the new army chief to be designated has already been announced.
To a question, the Prime Minister said lawyers representing the government in the Supreme Court in the dual offices case are confident that their case is strong and will go in favour of President Musharraf.
Shaukat Aziz said that government has done a lot to fight and contain extremism and terrorism. "This was done because we believe that this (terrorism) is no solution to any problem. The fact that we are engaging these elements much more aggressively than ever before leads to more clashes than we had seen in the past."
He termed it incorrect that Pakistan has been ineffective in the fight against terror. "We have been able to contain the issue. The root cause of trouble is the border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan. People come in from Afghanistan and use Pakistan as a safe haven. They also get local sympathy and support and this is all driven by the Taliban and their associates because of presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan. The faster Afghanistan can handle its own security the faster we can all help them build an army so that they can protect themselves and the safer that area will be," he noted.
He underlined the role of Pakistan to fight terrorism and extremism and said the effort to stamp out extremism is in their own national interest and has been recognised by everybody including governments across the world.
He expressed the hope that the effort which Pakistan and its armed forces have made will yield even more results Aziz also emphatically rejected the impression that the security situation in tribal areas had a link to re-election of President Musharraf.
Pakistan has 100,000 troops along the Pak-Afghan border and it is trying to secure it by using all its expertise and machinery. Pakistani troops are very effective and well known for their expertise. Pakistan is the largest supplier of troops to the United Nations, he said.
He assured Pakistan has not taken its eye off the situation on the border and said the intensity of engagement by the opposing parties has increased because the government is taking them on and not looking the other way. The Prime Minister said they have no clue about the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden. "If the world knew where he is they would have gone after him."
Shaukat Aziz said Pakistan has a very clear policy that it will never allow anyone from outside to make safe havens and then use its territory to endanger the security of any other country. "We will not tolerate this and will not allow anybody to do so."
Pakistan is also encouraging Afghanistan to build more posts and have more troops on its side of the border to intercept extremists, he concluded.
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