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Musharraf admits to waning of his popularity

ISLAMABAD: In the first of a weekly interactive television programme in Pakistan’s election season, President Pervez Musharraf spoke with an invited audience, making a candid admission that his popularity had dipped, and somewhat less directly accepted blame for trying to dismiss the Chief Justice.

In a programme aired Monday night on the state-run Pakistan Television, President Musharraf, dressed in casuals, took questions from a selected audience that allowed him to explain his position on issues such as extremism and militancy, the economy, and relations with the United States.

“I agree that my popularity has come down,” he said, in response to a question from a fashion designer, who told him that people had been impressed with his “sincerity” in the beginning, but it seemed that he was not listening anymore to the public and taking advice only from a small coterie around him.

“Lots of people give advice, but the person at whom it is aimed is finally responsible for taking or rejecting it. If someone is giving advice sincerely, and it turns out that it is wrong, what should I do? Turn back and shout at him that he is stupid? No, I’m not that kind of a leader. It was me that was stupid to take that advice. The responsibility lies with me. I don’t throw back blame,” he said.

The reference against the Chief Justice came from the Prime Minister, the President said. He sent it to the Supreme Judicial Council, and now that the Supreme Court had given its ruling, he had accepted the judgment.

His admission came as a Dawn television survey reported that 55.4 per cent of respondents wanted him to quit, and only 29.6 per cent wanted him to stay on.

President Musharraf said the country had “never been freer than we are at the moment,” and spoke about the profusion of media outlets in the country as compared to a few years ago as a reflection of the freedom of thought and expression that existed in the country.

Pakistan was not fighting to eliminate terrorism on behalf of the U.S. or any other country, the President said.

“We are doing it for ourselves. This is our biggest problem and we have to fight it. There are foreigners sitting in this country and bombing our own houses. We cannot accept that,” he said.

Free and fair elections alone would not solve the problem of terrorism and extremism, although the democratic process was important, he said.

“After transparent elections, which we expect to hold now, I expect that the vast majority of the people, who I know are moderate, should join hands to defeat extremism. I cannot do this alone, the army can’t do it by itself, nor can the police. It’s the people who have to do it,” President Musharraf said.

Denying that he had a “pro-US policy”, the President said he took it as a “personal insult” if someone accused him of dancing to the tunes of an outsider.

“We have a pro-Pakistan policy. It’s not pro anyone else. We keep Pakistan first, and in the process it suits America, ok, it’s all right. They asked us so much to send troops to Iraq. But we did not, because why should we do something that is not in our interest?” he said.

He said he was fully confident that the U.S. would not carry out any military strikes in Pakistan and that President George Bush had personally spoken to him and assured him about this.

The programme is to air every Monday.

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