By Jeremy Page and Zahid Hussain
February 26, 2008
Courtesy Of The TimesOnline
Britain and America are being accused of meddling in Pakistan's politics by pressing its election winners not to remove President Musharraf after his allies' crushing electoral defeat.
Senior figures in the two biggest parties in the new Parliament made the allegations to The Times after British and US envoys met several party leaders following parliamentary elections last Monday.
Robert Brinkley, the British High Commissioner to Pakistan, held talks on Thursday with Asif Ali Zardari, Benazir Bhutto's widower and successor as head of the Pakistan People's Party, which won the most seats.
On Friday Mr Brinkley met Nawaz Sharif, the former Prime Minister, whose Pakistan Muslim League (N) won the second-highest number of seats and is now trying to form a coalition government with the PPP.
Anne Patterson, the US Ambassador, met Mr Zardari on Wednesday and Friday, and held further talks on Friday with the head of the Awami National Party, another potential coalition partner. She met Mr Musharraf on Tuesday and Friday and is due to meet Mr Sharif today or tomorrow, according to the US Embassy.
Brian Hunt, the American consul in Lahore, also met Mr Sharif's brother, Shahbaz, on Wednesday as well as Aitzaz Ahsan, a prominent figure in the PPP, who led the lawyers' movement against Mr Musharraf last year.
British and US officials publicly insist that the meetings were routine or introductory, and deny urging any party not to remove Mr Musharraf, who seized power in a coup in 1999.
But senior figures in the PPP and PML (N) said that British and US officials had urged them not to try to impeach Mr Musharraf or reinstate the deposed Chief Justice, who would be sure to invalidate the President's re-election last year.
“There is huge pressure from America to work with Musharraf, but we'll do whatever we feel is right,” a senior PPP figure said.
A senior aide to Mr Sharif said:
“The British and the Americans are working together on this. They don't understand that it's time for Musharraf to go.”...
But Mr Ahsan accused the British and American Governments of continuing to back Mr Musharraf against the will of the Pakistani people.
“Why should the Americans and Brits continue to put pennies in his cap? I don't understand,” he said. “So far, this policy is in tatters. They've got to rethink.”
...The New York Times reported on Friday that Mr Musharraf agreed last month to let the Americans intensify secret strikes against suspected terrorists by pilotless aircraft launched in Pakistan. US officials are also hoping to deploy about 30 American counter-insurgency trainers to teach a Pakistani force how to fight al-Qaeda and Taleban militants.
...“We will not bow to US pressure, just as when we went ahead with conducting six nuclear tests without caring for their pressure,” Mr Sharif said.
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