ELECTION 99
US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Pak govt, army deny coup threat

The Pakistani government and the army have denied that there was any threat to the Nawaz Sharief government from the military as alleged by a senior US official even as the opposition described the US statement as a blatant intervention in Islamabad's internal affairs.

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Mushahid Hussain, without directly referring to the US statement warning the opposition and the army against an unconstitutional coup to oust the Nawaz Sharief government, said, ''There is no threat to the government. It is stable and strong and elections will be held as scheduled in 2002.''

Referring to a mounting campaign by the opposition against Sharief's rule, he said, ''The opposition is making noises and wasting time.''

Brigadier Rashid Quereshi, public relations chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence, expressed surprise over the US statement. ''The statement has taken us by surprise. But I am at my wit's end as to why this statement has been made at this time. What has the army done to warrant this?'' the Daily News quoted him as saying.

''Who is this official at the state department? What is his name? We do not know what has prompted this,'' he said. ''There is nothing that the army is doing. Ask the government what we are doing.''

Asked if the Chief of Army Staff, General Pervez Musharraf would ask for a clarification from the US on the statement, Brigadier Quereshi said, ''No, the COAS will not ask for any clarifications from anyone.''

Meanwhile, opposition leaders have severely criticised the statement, describing it as a blatant intervention in Pakistan's internal affairs.

Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, the leader of the Grand Democratic Alliance, a grouping of 19 opposition parties, formed with the sole aim of ousting Sharief, said, ''The opposition would continue its struggle to oust the government and that the US warning to the Nawaz Sharief government of its activities was not worthy of even a straw.''

Nasrullah Khan said, ''The judiciary should take suo motu notice on the disgrace the Nawaz Sharief government has brought to the nation by begging the US to save it on more than one occasion.''

''The US had clearly interfered in the domestic affairs of the country but those who had invited this interference deserved to be condemned more severely,'' he said.

Jamaat Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad said US President Bill Clinton's support would not save Sharief from his eventual downfall.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report