DATE=12/5/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=PAKISTAN POLITICS (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-256855
BYLINE=AYAZ GUL
DATELINE=ISLAMABAD
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Pakistan's military ruler Genral Pervez
Musharraf has promised to restore elected local
governments by the end of the year 2000. The military
leader, who seized power in a bloodless coup in
October, says he is committed to building genuine
democracy in the country. From Islamabad, Ayaz Gul
reports.
TEXT: The move would be the first step toward
fulfilling General Musharraf's promise of giving, as
he puts it, genuine democracy to Pakistan.
An official statement (issued late Saturday) quotes
General Musharraf as saying district-level elected
governments will be in place within a year. The
military leader says his government is seeking to
build democratic institutions through the
"devolution", or transfer, of power. In order to
achieve that objective, he says electoral reforms will
be introduced to strengthen Pakistan's election
commission.
General Musharraf made no mention of restoring the
national or provincial parliaments that were suspended
when he seized power in a coup October 12th.
Addressing a Pakistani-American organization in the
capital last Friday, General Musharraf said democracy
could flourish in the country only through this
"devolution", or transfer, and passing down of power
to the grass roots level.
//Musharraf Act//
We have to devolve power down to the grass root level.
We mean to the district level. We have to give power,
shed power from the center to the provinces and from
the provinces to the districts. The people must be
masters of their own destiny.
//End Act//
General Musharraf holds the "elite" responsible for
failing the poor majority of the country's 135-million
people. A Pakistani leader has rarely made such
critical remarks in the past.
//Musharraf Act Two//
Pakistan has been let down by the elite's. It is we
all, me included. It's the bureaucratic elite, it's
the industrial elite, it's the military elite, it's
the religious elite, and it's the political elite.
There is a mental block in our minds because we cannot
act against the powerful, against the rich.
//End Act//
Political analysts have long blamed Pakistan's tiny
"elite" of running the country for their own vested
interests since it's creation in 1947. A
succession of governments have done little to improve
the lot of ordinary people, with an average Pakistani
earning less than 50-dollars a month.(Signed)
NEB/AG/PLM
05-Dec-1999 08:34 AM EDT (05-Dec-1999 1334 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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