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Let's defeat extremism, Musharraf tells moderates

Nirupama Subramanian

"Country's future will be determined by the ongoing tussle"

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf who completed seven years in power on Thursday, made a passionate appeal for all moderate forces in Pakistan to join hands with him to defeat extremism, saying the future of the country would be determined by the ongoing tussle between these two forces.

"If moderates don't win, if extremists win, and moderates are defeated, the Quaid-e-Azam's vision of Pakistan will be defeated," he said at a press conference on Wednesday, a day before the seventh anniversary of his coup against the Nawaz Sharif Government.

It was not going to be an easy battle, and a strategy was required for defeating the extremists. "I am a moderate, and a strong believer that moderation should win."

The recent discovery of rockets in the capital were the handiwork of an extremist network that the police had unearthed. "I am not that easy a target. I don't know, I may have been the target. But I can't say for sure I was being targeted," he said.

Asked if he was pulling together all moderate forces on to one platform before the 2007 elections — a reference to the reported back-channel negotiations with Pakistan People's Party leader Benazir Bhutto — Gen. Musharraf evaded the question.

But he said the elections would be held on schedule, and they would be free and fair with all political parties participating in it. However, he said "these two individuals," meaning Ms. Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, would not be allowed to contest.

Gen. Musharraf rebutted criticism against him for writing his memoirs, saying the intention was not self-projection but to project a true picture of Pakistan on vital issues including the decision to test nuclear weapons.

"For whatever reason, the international media is interested in me, so why not use that to project Pakistan," he said.

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