World | Pakistan
Musharraf calls for 'stability, reconciliation' in Independence Day address
Pakistan marked its Independence Day on Thursday with Musharraf and Gilani urging 'unity of the country' to face the challenges ahead.
- Agencies
- Published: 09:51 August 14, 2008
- Image Credit: AP
- Pakistani girls, in traditional dresses, wave national flag and singing a song during the flag hoisting ceremony
Pakistan marked its Independence Day on Thursday with President Musharraf and Prime Minister Gilani urging 'unity of the country' to face the challenges ahead.
Pakistanis celebrated by taking to the streets, waving flags and attending parades to mark the 62nd Independence Day.
Addressing Pakistan in a televised Independence Day speech, Musharraf said: "If we want to put our economy on the right track and fight terrorism then we need political stability. Unless we bring political stability, I think we can't fight them properly,"
He did not refer to the ruling coalition's plan to impeach him in the address, his first public comments since the announcement.
"Political stability, in my view, can only be brought through a reconciliation approach as opposed to confrontation," he said.
However, Musharraf's appeal is likely to fall on deaf ears, as he faces a coalition intent on ousting him from office.
Hours after his speech, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, during the flag-hoisting ceremony on the occasion of the 62nd Independence Day at the Jinnah Convention Centre, said that his government believed in reconciliation between political parties.
But in a hint to Musharraf's rise to power via a coup in 1999, Gilani said: "The era of repression is over forever. Dictatorship has become a tale of the past."
Gilani also spoke abut the campaign against militancy, saying the problem had to be faced.
"The war against extremism and terrorism is a war for our own survival," he said.
However, celebrations were marred the night before when a suicide bomber on a motorcycle attacked a busy Lahore market, killing seven people.
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