President Pervez Musharraf said on Thursday the world should judge his country on economic progress and its fight against militancy, not Western ideas of human rights.
He made a number of suggestions to the west for helping Pakistan and other developing countries in his address to the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting 2008, in Davos to take the challenges upfront and make their economies strong to invest more in the social sector to impart quality education and other facilities to their citizens. The WEF annual meeting is in progress since January 23, and 98 countries are participating.
"Judge economic performance, the welfare of people and political stability," Musharraf told business and political leaders at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. "Please don't judge (us) on maybe unrealistic Western perceptions of democracy and human rights." "The elections must be free, fair and transparent. And I've added another word - peaceful," Musharraf said on Thursday. "We will make sure that they are peaceful."
President Pervez Musharraf said the west should remove inequities between the rich and the poor nations to help Pakistan and other developing countries address socio-economic problems and fight terrorism and militancy out once for all.
He said Pakistan is implementing a three-pronged strategy to cope with the challenges head-on. It included elimination of al Qaeda from Pakistan, weeding out the people from the militants and extremists to deal with them forcefully, socio-economic development for ensuring better living standard to the poor to protect them from indulging in negative activities.
He told the participants that Pakistan was all out to root out terrorism from its society and take big stride on economic front for quick progress and prosperity. President Musharraf said that illiterate and poverty-hit youths were an easy target of suicide-bombing masterminds for carrying out extremist activities and create panic in Pakistan's society.
He said sharing of all sections of the society in socio-economic development could guarantee a change in the mindset leading to suicide bombing for mass destruction and killing of the innocents. He said that Pakistan was a typical case in developing countries. It enjoys strategic location with a number of advantages over other regional countries. He said Pakistan's economy was showing upsurge with over 7 percent growth rate in the last five years and it's going to maintain the same momentum despite serious turbulence this year.
He mentioned killing of PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto and its fallout on Pakistan's economy in particular, and politics, and held Baitullah Mehsud responsible for it. President Musharraf said the caretaker government will make sure that February 18 general elections are held in a total free, fair, and peaceful environment and an elected government comes in to strengthen democratic process in Pakistan.
He also participated in a panel discussion and gave the participants a detailed presentation on Pakistan's economy, political scenario, February 18 elections, and measures taken by the government to ensure polls transparency and fairness.
He disagreed with a questioner who said Pakistan's next elections may not be free and fair as superior judiciary was not independent to give relief to the opposition parties in case elections are rigged.
He ruled out any such possibility, saying there was no reason for the opposition or anybody else to doubt the credibility of the general elections as its entire process was flawless and a caretaker government was taking every possible step to make elections transparent in practical terms.
He told another questioner that he was not a difficult person to work with, adding the president and the prime minister have their specific role in the Constitution and he would strictly follow the Constitution to function as a president.
AFP ADDS: Musharraf declined to say whether he would be prepared to reinstate ousted Supreme Court judges to rule on any possible complaint of electoral fraud. "Look at Pakistan from Pakistani eyes and not from foreign eyes," he said.
"You should see our performance on ... whether the welfare of the people, the economic progress of the country is being addressed and whether we are moving forward." Musharraf, sharing a platform with the head of Bangladesh's army-backed interim government Fakhruddin Ahmed, said both countries sought political stability and economic growth.
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