DATE=10/13/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=PAKISTAN COUP (L)
NUMBER=2-254964
BYLINE=AYAZ GUL
DATELINE=ISLAMABAD
INTERNET=YES
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Less than 24-hours after a bloodless military
coup in Pakistan removed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif,
Pakistanis awoke (Wednesday) to an air of normality
and business as usual, but with the army chief firmly
in control. Ayaz Gul reports from Islamabad, most
people on the streets in the capital city are
supporting the military take over and hope it will not
last long.
TEXT: There is a widespread uncertainty in Pakistan
about its political system. The army chief has not
yet made a promised policy statement, a day after he
lead a military coup to remove Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif from power.
The army's move is being greeted with conflicting
sentiments. People want the coup makers to clean up
the system, but they want democracy restored in
Pakistan. Successive governments have been accused of
corruption and miss-rule, and that is why few people
disagree with the military's move.
Banker Abbas Ahmed says the military coup did not come
as a surprise.
// ABBAS ACT //
Considering the incidents in the past few
months, I feel everyone was expecting that
something like this would happen. A change was
due.
// END ACT //
A private business executive in Islamabad, Asif Aleem,
says Pakistanis should not be proud of military coups.
// ALEEM ACT //
No, I am not really happy with it. But the
thing is that the country right now desperately
needed this. This is the best thing that has
happened in a long time to this country. And
Nawaz Sharif and his gang of looters had done
what they had to do and we really needed to get
rid of him. They had brought the country on the
brink of a collapse and, in fact, we already had
a collapse. The economy had gone down the
drain. We needed somebody to pick the economy
up; we needed somebody to bring the country back
to its feet. And I think this is a good thing
that has happened.
// END ACT //
Mr. Aleem says successive political governments have
failed to deliver in the past.
// ALEEM ACT TWO //
If you look at the history of Pakistan during
the last 52-years, this is exactly what has been
happening in this country. One democratic
government comes, it starts and takes the charge
of the country and suddenly things go wrong.
Why? Then the army always has to interfere. It
had to interfere to make things right. And this
has happened once again.
// END ACT //
The military coup against Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif's government is the fourth such action in
Pakistan's 52-years history.
Tuesday's military coup resulted from months of
confrontations between Prime Minister Sharif and army
chief General Pervez Musharaf -- particularly over the
withdrawal of Pakistani forces from Indian Kashmir
early this year.
The Sharif government had on several occasions
indicated it was the military leadership, and not the
political leadership that sent forces to occupy
territory in Indian Kashmir.
Analysts say Mr. Sharif's conflicts with the military,
unemployment, and the declining economy fueled
people's desires to see him out of office. Average
Pakistanis say they saw Mr. Sharif as a power-hungry
ruler who was paying less and less attention to
improving the country's situation.
Imran Shirazi, a government employee, says it is this
view which has lead to the removal of the Sharif
government.
// IMRAN SHIRAZI //
As they say, power corrupts and absolute power
corrupts absolutely. And the same was the case
with Mr. Nawaz Sharif's government. He was on a
winning streak and he thought that he could win
the whole Pakistan on his own, but it was not
so. And in the end he had to go home.
// END ACT //
The military has ruled Pakistan for almost half its
52-year existence. The last military regime came to
an abrupt end in 1988 when military dictator Zia ul-
Haq died in a plane crash, which lead to the revival
of democracy in Pakistan. (SIGNED)
NEB/AG/RAE
13-Oct-1999 09:52 AM EDT (13-Oct-1999 1352 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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