World | Pakistan
Musharraf aide rejects suggestion by US senators
President Pervez Musharraf's spokesman on Monday dismissed a suggestion from a US senator that he make a "graceful" retreat from power after the victory of his opponents in elections.
- AP
- Published: 23:40 February 25, 2008
Islamabad: President Pervez Musharraf's spokesman on Monday dismissed a suggestion from a US senator that he make a "graceful" retreat from power after the victory of his opponents in elections.
Musharraf was elected to a new five-year presidential term last year by Pakistani lawmakers, "not by any senator from the United States," his spokesman Rashid Qureshi told Dawn News television. "So I don't think he needs to respond to anything that is said by these people."
Several senators met Musharraf after last week's parliamentary vote in which his political allies were routed. Some Pakistani leaders and many media commentators have called for him to resign.
The US government appears to want Musharraf, a key ally in the war on terror, to continue in office.
However, Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on Sunday that he would advise Musharraf to seek a dignified way to leave office.
'We need unity'
The parties of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and another former premier, Nawaz Sharif, won a majority of the seats in the new parliament and are expected to form a coalition government.
However, they fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to impeach Musharraf, whose popularity plummeted last year after he declared a state of emergency and clamped down on the opposition, the judiciary and the media.
"We have to establish democracy and for that we need unity and not confrontation." Qureshi said.
"The president will function with them [lawmakers]. There is no issue with that. The president is an easy man to get along with and I don't think we should feel that there'll be any friction there," Qureshi said.
Western officials are concerned that an attempt to force Musharraf from power would spark a constitutional crisis and hobble Pakistan's effort to fighting growing extremism.
Taliban-style militants battling government forces near the Afghan border said on Sunday they want dialogue with the winners of the elections and urged the new leadership to abandon the war on terror.
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