PAKISTAN: President Musharraf swears in caretaker government to oversee general elections while Bhutto says she will not hold talks with "dictators"

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf swears in a caretaker government to oversee general elections which the opposition says it doubts can be free and fair. Following her release from house arrest Pakistan's former prime minister Bhutto said she would not hold talks with "dictators", while Islamists protested against the new caretaker government. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf swore in a caretaker government on Friday (November 16) to oversee general elections which the opposition says it doubts can be free and fair. As expected, Senate chairman and ruling party member Mohammadmian Soomro was sworn in as the Interim Prime Minister, and will head the caretaker line-up. The National Assembly -- which critics say is a pro-Musharraf rubber stamp convened after what they say were rigged polls in 2002 -- completed its term on Thursday (November 15). But opposition party officials said no matter who heads the caretaker administration, elections that army chief Musharraf has promised for early January won't be free and fair under emergency rule he imposed on November 3. The government freed opposition leader Benazir Bhutto from house arrest on Friday shortly before U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte was to visit, hoping to help put the country's "derailed" political process back on track. Speaking to reporters moments later, Bhutto told reporters: "The People's Party has said that he (president Musharraf) should quit. And we know that we should work on his (Musharraf) exit strategy. We are organising strength of the people." The United States had hoped army chief Musharraf and Bhutto would share power after a general election but the latter, infuriated by the crackdown, has now ruled that out. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, due for a weekend visit, will push Musharraf to end the emergency rule he imposed in an apparent bid to hold on to the presidency, and to free thousands of detained opposition figures. Dozens of workers from an Islamist party took to the streets of the Pakistani capital after Friday prayers to protest against the caretaker government. Abdul Majid Hazarvi, secretary general of the Rawalpindi chapter of a six-party Islamist alliance MMA, said Musharraf needed to let go of both his offices - as President and Army Chief - if he wanted to give credibility to the elections. "We have reservations about the interim Prime Minister and cabinet who have taken oath today," said Hazarvi during the demonstration. He added: "We believe that free and fair elections cannot take place in the country until impartial people take control of the government and the judiciary and the election commission are made independent."

ITN Source | November 16, 2007

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