Pakistan Islamists Want U.S. Troops Out
Mon Oct 14, 1:08 PM ET
By Nasir Malick
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - Hard-line Islamic parties that have emerged as potential coalition partners after a general election in Pakistan said Monday they would seek to impose Islamic law in the country and ask U.S. troops to leave.
Talks over who would form a coalition in parliament gathered pace, with the focus of the outside world on whether the Islamic front, which recorded stunning gains in last Thursday’s poll, would be part of the government or in opposition.
The election, designed to return Pakistan to civilian rule after a coup in 1999, has been strongly criticized by European Union (news - web sites) observers who said the military tipped the voting in its favor to allow President Pervez Musharraf to hold on to power.
“We assure the international community that we are not terrorists,” Qazi Hussain Ahmed, vice president of the Mutahidda-e-Amal (MMA) Islamic coalition, told a news briefing in Islamabad where he set out his party’s stall.
“We will not use this country for terrorism, nor allow anyone to use this country for terrorism,” he said, before adding:
“But we do not approve of foreign interference. For this we do not need any help from the American forces nor their bases in the country. There should also be no such bases here which could be used for interference in the affairs of neighboring states.”
He was referring to the small U.S. military presence in Pakistan concentrated at the Jacobabad air base, from where search and rescue operations in Afghanistan (news - web sites) are launched.
The MMA is also likely to oppose the small numbers of U.S. intelligence agents helping Pakistani forces track down al Qaeda suspects in tribal areas near the Afghan border.
But Musharraf, a key ally to Washington in its campaign against the Afghan Taliban and al Qaeda network, said the rise of the religious right would not derail his policies.
“As far as national policies are concerned…the national strategy does not change with a change of government, it continues,” he told reporters after a summit in Istanbul.
MMA Chairman Shah Ahmed Noorani told reporters in Karachi that his party supported the introduction of Islamic sharia law.
“Our first priority is to implement Islamic laws in the country and we will not compromise in this issue. Now it is the responsibility of the state to protect Islam and do away with secular norms.”
“KING’S PARTY” LAYS LOW
The MMA won 50 seats, eclipsing religious parties’ performance at the 1997 election when they won just two. It makes them the third largest party behind the Pakistan Muslim League Quaid-e-Azam or PML(QA) with 77 seats and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) which won 62.
In contrast to the vocal MMA, the PML(QA) has kept a low profile since becoming the largest party in parliament.
Dubbed the “king’s party” for its perceived support of Musharraf, its leader Mian Mohammad Azhar suffered the humiliation of not winning a seat, forcing him to hand over the reins to Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain.
Local media reported talks between PML(QA) and the PPP led by exiled former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
But it is far from clear whether the two parties would be able to resolve their differences, with PML(QA) seen as a loose union of candidates designed to weaken the anti-Musharraf lobby and the PPP fiercely opposed to continued military rule.
The fact that the MMA is a grouping of such disparate religious parties opposed to each other in the past raises questions about its ability to remain united, analysts said.
How much the composition of the coalition in Pakistan actually matters remains to be seen.
By enhancing his powers through constitutional changes, which have given him the right to dissolve parliament and cemented the role of the military in government, Musharraf remains strong.
His decision to ban Bhutto and another exiled former premier, Nawaz Sharif, from contesting the election infuriated opponents, as did a controversial referendum in April that extended his rule for five years.
