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| Musharraf warns Pak will be "no more" if moderates lose power | | | Islamabad, Oct 12 :Feted abroad for his promises to fight terrorism and flayed at home for failing to curb forces of extremism, President Pervez Musharraf, who completed seven years in power, today warned that Pakistan envisaged by its founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah will be "no more" if extremists rests control over moderates like him.
"The tussle will be between the moderates and the extremists. I am a moderate and strongly believe that the moderates must win. If the extremists win, than Quaid-e-Azam's (Jinnah's) Pakistan will be no more there," he told reporters here last night at an inftar party.
Musharraf came to power in a coup on Oct 12, 1999 posing as "reluctant coupmaker" who had to launch a "counter coup" to thwart the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's "conspiracy" to oust him as Chief of Army.
After the Sept 11, 2001 terror attacks on US, he deftly washed away the image of "Jihadi General" for staging Kargil with the help of Islamic militants and joined the war on terror bandwagon and emerged as the "front line ally" in US President George W Bush's war against AlQaeda and Taliban.
Musharraf, who had addressed the nation during previous anniversaries of his assumption of power, took even his bitterest critics by surprise by projecting the "worst case scenario" of Jinnah's Pakistan withering away if moderates loose to extremists in Pakistan.
He stressed when he says that Jinnah's Pakistan may be lost, "I mean every word of it", a remark seen as an attempt to placate mainstream moderate leaders like Sharif and another former Premier, Benazir Bhutto. |
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