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Boycott option still open: Benazir
Be tough on poll boycotters, Mush tells caretakers
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EC rejects Shahbaz’s nomination
Don’t meddle in our affairs, Malaysia to India
Nepal’s major parties meet to end deadlock
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Boycott option still open: Benazir
Voicing apprehensions that elections would be rigged, PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto has said her party has decided to take part in polls under protest but has not given up the boycott option.
“We can reconsider our decision to participate in the elections if all opposition parties agree on a common agenda and prepare ground for other alternative,” she told reporters here. “If all opposition parties agree on any common agenda then the PPP can certainly review its decision to contest,” she said. Benazir said the PPP has entered the electoral contest quite convinced it would be rigged and wanted to expose that fact through participation. “We are not giving them any legitimacy but if we do not participate we leave the field to others,” she added. In reply to a question regarding the APDM announcement to pursue her boycott the elections, Benazir said she was ready to hold a meeting with Nawaz Sharif and other leaders of the APDM to discuss the issue. On her stance on reinstatement of deposed judges, she said the PPP wanted that democracy could be revived in the country and once real democracy revived it would pave the way for reinstatement of the judges. She welcomed Musharraf’s decision to take off uniform, announcing to lift emergency and revive the constitution saying that these are positive developments. But still lot more confidence-building measures were needed to ensure free, fair and transparent elections. She also denied reports of her meeting with Musharraf.
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Be tough on poll boycotters, Mush tells caretakers
President Pervez Musharraf has told the caretaker government to get tough with those boycotting the elections and said that agitation must not be allowed to disrupt the electoral process. “All situations of conflict must be avoided, and the caretaker administration, especially in the provinces, must maintain law and order at every cost,” he said in his first interaction with the caretaker cabinet at his army office in Rawalpindi. Musharraf has retired from the army but has decided to continue residing in the Army House for the time being. The president advised the caretakers to demonstrate neutrality through their actions while managing day-to-day governance. In his speech, Musharraf highlighted priorities and underscored three main issues to be pursued by the caretaker government. These included steps to ensure sustainability of economic upsurge, maintenance of law and order and holding of free and transparent elections. Officials said the presidential piece of advice was necessitated as some candidates of the former ruling PML-Q were reportedly being given material support in their electioneering by government leaders, specially local governments in different areas. PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto had already pointed out that the election campaign of a PML-Q candidate was being supported by the local government at some level in Rawalpindi. It was the key reason that some parties had demanded to clip the wings of the local governments and their Nazims during the election days. President Musharraf underpinned the principle of neutrality of his handpicked governments that includes several members of PML and its coalition partners. Mush may quit
President Pervez Musharraf said on Friday that if after the January 8 elections, a situation develops that is “absolutely unacceptable to me, I have a choice of leaving”. The exclusive interview broadcast on the ABC morning show, Good Morning America, took place in Islamabad. The president declared, when asked if he was in a power-sharing deal with former premier Benazir Bhutto, "I am not in any deal with anyone. We are in a stage where we have to have fair elections. We have to see after the elections how things develop. If the situation develops in a manner which is absolutely unacceptable to me, I have a choice of leaving."
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EC rejects Shahbaz’s nomination
Lahore, December 1 Shahbaz’s lawyer Imtiaz Kaifi said his nomination papers for elections to the national and provincial assemblies were rejected in connection with the extra-judicial killings of five students in 1998. Kaifi said there were no legal grounds for the rejection of the papers as Shahbaz had not been convicted and was not a proclaimed absconder. — PTI
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Don’t meddle in our affairs, Malaysia to India
Kuala Lumpur, December 1 Kuala Lumpur also firmly stated that it will deal with its citizens according to its laws in the wake of the growing unrest among the minority ethnic Tamils in this muslim-majority country. “I hope there is no misunderstanding of what is happening here. If they are talking about Indian citizens, we would understand the concern, but what happened involves Malaysian citizens,” foreign minister Syed Hamid Albar said. He said all Malaysian citizens, no matter their origin, had to abide by the law of the land. “If they break any law, it is our right to deal with them in accordance with Malaysian laws,” he told The Star when asked for his response to external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee’s comments expressing New Delhi’s concern over the plight of ethnic Indians in Malaysia. Albar said if foreign governments start to question ethnicity in the country, Malaysia would eventually face a break-up. Indians account for eight per cent of Malaysia’s population, the third biggest group after ethnic Malays and Chinese. At least 10,000 ethnic Indians took part in a demonstration, banned by the government, here last Sunday complaining about their alleged marginalisation in Malaysia. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also said he was ‘pained’ at the plight of ethnic Tamils to which a senior Malaysian minister Nazri Aziz had told him to ‘lay off’ from Malaysia’s internal affairs.
— PTI
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Nepal’s major parties meet to end deadlock
Kathmandu, December 1 Senior leaders of the seven-party alliance, including the Maoists, gathered at the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction in Singha Durbar on Saturday afternoon. The meeting decided to review the implementation process of all agreements reached since the signing of the 12-point agreement between the then seven-party alliance and the Maoists in November 2005.
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