Sharif rebukes Boucher for telling govt to lay off Musharraf

Rezaul H. Laskar

Islamabad, July 3 (PTI) In an angry rebuke to the U.S.,
former premier Nawaz Sharif on thursday said his country did
not need any foreign advise over handling Pervez Musharraf
after a top American official contended that the fate of the
President was not the most pressing issue confronting
Pakistan.
"Pakistan will take decisions on its own. What is to be
done with an unconstitutional President is Pakistan's internal
matter. There is no need for any foreign advice," Sharif told
reporters at Islamabad airport shortly after his arrival here
from Lahore on Thursday morning.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher had on
Wednesday said that Pakistan should focus more on security,
extremism, rising food costs and power shortages and less on
the fate of Musharraf.
"President Musharraf isn't the issue right now, this is
not the problem that Pakistan faces right now," Boucher told a
news conference on Wednesday after meeting Musharraf and other
Pakistani leaders.
Sharif, the chief of the Pakistan Mualim League-Nawaz
which is a key partner in the ruling coalition led by the
Pakistan People's Party, criticised the operation launched by
security forces against militants in the tribal region.
He said the government had not taken its allies into
confidence before starting the operation in the Khyber Agency
near Peshawar, the capital of the North West Frontier
Province.
Paramilitary forces launched the operation in Khyber
Agency on Saturday against three militant groups.
They have destroyed militant bases and arrested over 50
rebels. Boucher on Wednesday welcomed the operation and
claimed that the militants had terrified the people and there
was also a threat to Peshawar.
However, Sharif said the operation in the tribal region
went against the understanding of the new coalition. The
ruling PPP should not take important decisions without
consulting its allies, he said.
"We are in the same situation as were in before February
18," Sharif said, referring to the situation prevailing in
Pakistan before the holding of the general election.
Sharif, who was ousted by Musharraf in the 1999 bloodless
military coup, has been demanding that the President be
impeached and tried for treason.
His party quit the cabinet last month over its demand to
get reinstated the judges sacked by Musharraf during emergency
last year.
Sharif expressed disappointment at the people's mandate
not being honoured by the government. He noted that it had
earlier been decided that dialogue would be given a chance to
handle security problems in the NWFP and Federally
Administered Tribal Areas.
The PML-N leadership had no idea why this policy was
subsequently changed, he said. Such big decisions as the
launching of operations by security forces should not be taken
by a single party, he added.
Replying to a question about the PML-N's alliance with the
PPP, Sharif said the people want the political forces to make
a joint effort to resolve issues confronting the country.