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Today's Paper | November 28, 2024

Published 29 Oct, 2004 12:00am

Musharraf behaving like emperor: PML-N

ISLAMABAD, Oct 28: Chief Coordinator Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz (PML-N) Ahsan Iqbal has said President Gen Pervez Musharraf is behaving like an emperor and his recent off the shelf pronouncement on Kashmir has stunned every patriotic Pakistani.

In a statement issued here on Thursday, the PML-N leader said Pakistan had fought three wars on Kashmir and over eighty thousand Kashmiris sacrificed their lives for this issue; therefore, its handling required utmost fitness and homework.

He said Gen Musharraf must inform the nation with whose authority and approval did he present his latest distorted vision of a solution to the Kashmir issue. "Did the parliament grant him the mandate or did he have the clearance of his crony cabinet? Or did the Corps Commanders authorize him to do so?"

If he had the clearance from none of the above forums then it becomes evident that he has started thinking of him as the final arbitrator of national interest and that he is answerable to no institution, he said.

Mr Iqbal said by making Kashmir a regional or geographic issue Gen Musharraf was destroying the foundations of the ideology of Pakistan. It will open a Pandora's box and different geographic disputes will arise to challenge the partition of the subcontinent.

"This is a very risky situation as far as safeguarding national interests is concerned. Pakistan needs well functioning institutions so that its image is not one of a banana republic but a well functioning democracy. Unfortunately, Gen Musharraf is hellbent on making the country a one-man show which is making the society polarized and instable," he added.

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