Pakistan Views

The Bush administration on Sunday urged Pakistan to move ahead with free elections but declined to push Islamabad to hold the scheduled Jan. 8 ballot after opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was martyred on Thursday.

We believe it is important for Pakistan to confront extremists and continue on the path to democracy by holding free and fair elections White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said in a statement.

The timing of those elections will be up to the people Stanzel said in Texas where US President George W. Bush was spending a weeklong holiday at his ranch.

Benazir’s martyrdom has thrown the election in doubt and a senior official in Pakistan, a key ally in Bush’s war on terrorism, said it could be delayed for up to eight weeks.

The United States and other Western allies have urged Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf to hold elections, hoping that will bring stability to the nuclear-armed country that is emerging from eight years of military rule while facing mounting violence from al Qaeda.

The US State Department went somewhat further than the White House, saying if the election was delayed Pakistan should also announce a new date for the polls.

If there is a delay in the elections, we want to make sure a new date is named. We don’t want to see an indefinite delay said a State Department spokesman, declining to be further identified.

But the State Department spokesman said that the naming of martyred Benazir’s 19-year-old son Bilawal and her husband Zardari as the leaders of her party, the Pakistan People’s Party, would help Pakistan move ahead with the polls.

Benazir’s martyred while campaigning on Thursday in a suicide attack that has stoked violence in the country

The election scheduled for January 8 will certainly be delayed for at least four weeks if not more a cabinet official told AFP on Monday.

Certainly it will be pushed back for at least four weeks if not more the official said.

Another senior government official told AFP: It is out of the question that the elections will be held on January 8 because of the widespread unrest that has directly affected election staff and vote preparations.

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) rejects any delay in January 8 elections, a party official said on Monday after government and electoral officials said the vote would be postponed.

“We are ready for elections and do not want any delay. We demand immediate elections — and on January 8,” senior party official Shah Mahmood Qureshi told AFP.

“The government should stick to the schedule. If the government delays the election, we will call a central executive committee meeting to decide our future course of action,” said Qureshi, a committee member.

Martyred Benazir Bhutto’s party appointed her son Bilawal and her husband Asif Ali Zardari to succeed the slain PPP leader on Sunday and the party said it would take part in a Jan 8 election as Martyred Benazir would have wanted.

But a senior official of the former ruling party said the election was likely to be delayed for up to eight weeks.

Benazir martyrdom in a suicide attack on Thursday has stoked violence and thrown into doubt the election, deepening a crisis in the important US ally against terrorism as it struggles to emerge from military rule.

Bilawal, an Oxford law student, is Bhutto’s 19-year-old son. He will lead the party as chairman with his father, Asif Ali Zardari, who is to be co-chairman.

Zardari said the party would take part in the election as his martyred Benazir would have wanted.

“Despite this dangerous situation, we will go for January 8 elections, according to her will and thinking,” Zardari told a news conference at the martyred Benazir family home in Naudero, after a party meeting.

Bilawal, introduced at the news conference as Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, said the party’s long struggle for democracy would continue with new vigour. “My mother always said, democracy is the best revenge,” he said.

Earlier, a senior official of the party that backs President Pervez Musharraf and ruled until a caretaker government was set up last month, said a postponement of the election was increasingly likely because of the turmoil that erupted after Benazir martyrdom.

“It seems more than likely that elections will be delayed,” the official, Tariq Azim Khan, told Reuters. He said he expected a six to eight week postponement.

Martyred Benazir had hoped to win power for a third time in the vote though analysts expected a three-way split between her, PML-N and PML-Q.

The party can expect to pick up a sympathy vote after Benazir’s martyrdom and its core support would remain for now, even though Bilawal would return to university

“It will retain support in the short term but obviously, in the long term they’ll have to earn their spurs and demonstrate leadership,” said former minister and analyst Shafqat Mahmood.

But the choice of the Bilawal and Zardari to lead the party raised eyebrows among some people.

“I don’t think Zardari is capable enough of handling the party himself. Bilawal is too young, the father is not capable. Someone else should be appointed,” said Ferooz Menon, 37, who has an electronics business in the eastern city of Lahore.

Anger against Musharraf burns strongly among martyred Benazir Bhutto supporters and since her death sporadic violence has erupted, boosting fears about country stability.

The death toll from the violence has reached 47.

Streets in Karachi were generally quiet and deserted on Sunday though a disabled man was burned to death when a petrol station was set on fire.

Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party has dismissed a government statement that al Qaeda killed her, saying Musharraf’s embattled administration was trying to cover up its failure to protect her.

A spokesman for the party of former premier Nawaz Sharif said on Monday that a ’short postponement’ of the country’s January 8 elections ‘would be acceptable.’

“Tempers are very high at the moment, and if it is a short postponement that would be acceptable,” Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz spokesman Raja Zafar ul-Haq told AFP.

PML-N on Sunday abandoned its earlier pledge to boycott the vote, which it made after the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto.

Pakistan’s Election Commission will decide on Tuesday whether to postpone a Jan. 8 general election meant to complete a transition to civilian rule, a commission official said on Monday.

The election has been thrown into question by the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto on Thursday and widespread violence, especially in the south of the country, by her enraged supporters.

“We have called for reports from the provincial governments and provincial election commissioners on the situation. The reports will reach here by evening today and we will decide tomorrow,” commission secretary Kanwar Dilshad told reporters.

Ten Election Commission offices had been burnt in Sindh in the south, Bhutto’s home province, in the rioting that followed her murder, he said.

The printing of ballots in Karachi had been halted for the past four days because of the trouble, he said. Security in two northwestern regions also raised doubts about voting there, the commission said earlier.

Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party, now led by her teenage son and husband, said on Sunday it was ready to take part in the elections.

Another main opposition party, led by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, said it would probably drop its boycott plan and take part as well.

India has ended its high alert for forces along the Pakistan border and restored some transport links, officials said on Monday, following disruption in the wake of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination.

The killing of the Pakistani opposition leader in a suicide attack on Thursday unleashed a wave of violence in Pakistan. India had feared chaos could spill across the border and ordered a “high state of vigil” on Friday.

But with cities in Pakistan beginning to emerge from several days of unrest, India’s border is no longer on “red alert”, a home ministry official said.

The bi-weekly Delhi-Lahore Samjhauta Express train resumed services on Sunday, the railway ministry said. The Thar Express, a weekly service between India’s Rajasthan state and Pakistan’s Sindh province, will run again on Saturday “if the situation improves”, a ministry official said.

Relations between the neighbours, which have been to war three times and nearly fought another conflict in 2002, are always fraught despite a fragile peace process in the past few years.

Pakistan’s political leaders must strive for democracy, which would stand as a lasting memorial to assassinated opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Monday.

In an article for daily Urdu newspaper, Brown said it was important Bhutto’s killing did not deflect the country’s political leaders from the pursuit of democracy and that scheduled elections could be free, fair and secure.

“A strong representative democracy in Pakistan will defeat terrorism and extremism, show the path to a more stable, prosperous future, and stand as a lasting memorial to the life’s work of Benazir Bhutto,” Brown wrote.

“We owe it to her memory to strive together to achieve that goal,” he said.

Bhutto’s killing in a suicide attack on Thursday stoked bloodshed across the country, casting doubt on nuclear-armed Pakistan’s stability and its transition to civilian rule.

Electoral officials are due to hold an emergency meeting on Monday to decide whether to go ahead with a planned Jan. 8 election. Bhutto’s party, which chose her son and husband on Sunday to succeed her, has said it will take part in the election.

Former provincial minister Pir Mazharul Haq, PPP Dadu President Rafiq Ahmed Jamali and several others were booked for besieging and attacking the residence of former minister and PML-Q leader Liaquat Ali Jatoi.

Meanwhile, a complete shutter down continued here on the third consecutive day Saturday to protest the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

The city presented a deserted look. Traffic on the roads was very thin. Necessities of life became rare and were sold at very high prices.

Also, several thousand people offered funeral prayers in absentia of Benazir Bhutto outside the district office of the PPP.

After the prayers, unruly mobs set ablaze the office of a union council, a branch office of a local bank besides several shops.

The communication link between Dadu and the rest of the country remained suspended as two offices of the PTCL were torched.

Communication link of a cellular company also remained suspended after its tower was set alight. The Army has taken control of the district to maintain law and order.

The Sukkur city remained calmer on Saturday, except for some incidents of firing and shelling on the Military Road, Qureshi Goth and Rohri, where the police resorted to teargas and aerial firing to disperse unruly mobs.

No newspapers reached Sukkur and its adjoining areas on Friday and Saturday, as vehicles transporting newspapers from Karachi to Sukkur and other cities and towns were burnt in Hyderabad.

On the other hand, telephones and internet were disrupted between Thursday-Friday night due to which telephonic connection between Karachi and other parts of Sindh was suspended.

Earlier, Sukkur and its adjoining areas remained engulfed in flames on Thursday night and Friday morning, when miscreants torched at least 10 trucks loaded with fruit and vegetables at new and old fruit and vegetable markets and also set ablaze a departmental store near the Clock Tower.

A flour grinding mill and a stall of edibles were also torched in the city, besides damage to industrial units situated in the Site area of Sukkur.

Shutters remained down throughout the day in Sukkur and its adjoining areas and not a single shop or hotel or cigarette cabin was seen open due to which shortage of edibles was experienced.

The offices of Taluka municipal council, four banks, some government buildings and hospitals and more than 150 cars and motorcycles were set ablaze in different localities of the city.

On Friday, enraged agitators had torched more than 15 cars and trucks parked in the Custom House, while many trailers, trucks and private cars were also torched on the National Highway.

Sixteen coaches of the Pakistan Express were set ablaze at Mehrabpur railway station and 12 coaches of Bhambhore Express, Shalimar Express and Awam Express were torched at Pano Akil railway station. A large number of passengers were stranded at different railway stations without water, food and tea in this chilly season. The worst sufferers are the infants who are without milk.

The passengers stranded at different railway stations are without food and water, as all efforts to provide them with food and water have failed, because miscreants have not allowed the supplies to reach them.

The railway authorities are reluctant to provide any relief to the stranded passengers and were also not providing any information to worried relatives of the passengers.

Due to torching of many trains, the Pakistan Railways have suspended the train service.

Mobs were patrolling different localities of cities and towns, burning tyres and causing damage to public and private properties without discrimination.