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Islamabad: Exiled former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif urged the West yesterday to abandon the country's military ruler Pervez Musharraf.
Sharif said Pakistan was heading deeper into chaos and Musharraf has outlived his usefulness in fighting terrorism.
Sharif also ruled out teaming up with Benazir Bhutto, another key opposition leader, unless she cut off talks with Musharraf.
"One man is holding the entire nation hostage for his personal interests," Sharif said, referring to the US-allied military leader who declared emergency rule, and has rounded up thousands of opposition activists and protesting attorneys.
"The political forces, the lawyers and civil community that believe in moderation and democracy, they are sidelined today. Who is going to get the benefit? It will be the radicals and extremists, they will thrive now," Sharif said in a telephone interview from Saudi Arabia, where he was deported in September after attempting to return to Pakistan.
Catastrophe
"Mr Musharraf is a man who has outlived his utility in terms of fighting any battle against terror." Sharif, whose government was ousted by Musharraf in a 1999 coup and has spent the last seven years in exile, said thousands of his party members had been rounded up in the past four days.
He urged the public to protest against Musharraf, and predicted that unless the state of emergency was reversed and Musharraf ousted, the country could be pitched toward "catastrophe."
"Even the ruling junta today does not know how to get out of this situation they have got into," he said.
"If he [Musharraf] still continues to cling onto power, then of course people will not keep watching the situation in their homes and remain silent spectators, they will come on the streets. I see that large numbers will come onto the streets in the coming days," Sharif said.
Sharif, who was twice civilian prime minister of Pakistan, said he did not support cutting even military assistance to Pakistan, but said the West should "dissociate themselves" from Musharraf. He urged Bhutto to do the same.
"I would still be very willing to work with her provided she now abandons all her plans to go along with Musharraf because he's a dictator and the man responsible for the present day's crisis," Sharif said. "She has to join the democratic forces."
Bhutto meeting snubbed
Yesterday, Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N party, or PML-N, snubbed a meeting of secular opposition parties chaired by Bhutto, who says her discussions with the general have stalled but has left open the possibility of resuming them if he moves toward democracy.
Sharif said he had spoken to Bhutto in the immediate aftermath of the October 18 suicide attack that targeted her homecoming from exile, killing 145.
He said they had also exchanged brief words two days ago when they were phoned by the same radio station for interviews.
Sharif said that unless he was able to return to Pakistan before parliamentary elections, as Bhutto has been allowed to do, the vote would be a "farce." His and Bhutto's are the two main secular political parties in the nation.
"If Benazir Bhutto is there, what's the harm if Nawaz Sharif comes to Pakistan?" he said.
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