Firmly denying any international pressure to roll back Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme and its stand on Kashmir, President Gen Pervez Musharraf asserted there is no question of backing out on these issues.
"There is no pressure whatsoever on me to roll back the nuclear and missile programmes. We are not rolling back, there is no question, these are in our national interests and only a traitor will think of rolling back," he told a function at organised by the All Pakistan Newspapers Society in Islamabad on Monday night.
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On the contrary he said, "The Kashmir dispute is in the limelight and now, we need to move forward towards a peaceful resolution of the dispute. Nobody is asking me to give up on Kashmir."
The conversion of the Line of Control into the international border could not be a solution to the issue, Musharraf said.
He hoped there would be a forward movement towards resolution of outstanding issues, including Kashmir, between India and Pakistan during the SAARC conference in the first week of January.
Musharraf also denied any split in the army ranks over his leadership and said all corps commanders were with him.
He said the decision to question some of the country's top nuclear scientists was taken because Pakistan is firmly committed to nuclear non-proliferation.
Asserting that he is not a weak person, Musharraf said he always kept national interests supreme while taking decisions on vital issues.
Musharraf's statements even as Parliament was discussing constitutional amendments granting vast powers to him as well as to ratify his election as president to settle an year-long political stalemate over the legality of his presidency and his constitutional powers.
The country's National Assembly has already ratified constitutional amendments he brought about with a two-thirds majority and with little modifications.
The upper house, Senate, was set to follow the suit on Tuesday as the Islamist alliance Muthahida Majlis Amal, has joined the ruling coalition's ranks to lend support to the move.
After this, Musharraf is set to win a confidence vote on his presidency, both in the parliament and the provincial assemblies on January 1, ahead of the SAARC summit beginning on January 4.
The MMA accorded support to him after he agreed to quit as army chief in December 2004. However, he is set to emerge as the post powerful president with powers to dismiss parliament, appoint chiefs of armed forces and preside over the powerful military-dominated National Security Council.
Musharraf said although the nation had voted for him in the presidential referendum, he sought endorsement from parliament in the interest of democracy and Pakistan.
Musharraf denied that democracy was not functioning in Pakistan. "Democracy is functioning in the country, there are human rights, there is an elected prime minister, the cabinet, chief ministers, assemblies and the senate - democracy is rule of the majority and if the minority wants it the other way, that is not democratic," he said.
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