Former PM Sharif Warns of Pakistan Chaos

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Former Pakistani leader Nawaz Sharif, a key opposition figure, urged the United States and other Western nations Wednesday to abandon embattled President Pervez Musharraf, saying he is no longer able to help them fight terrorism।

By MATTHEW PENNINGTON, Associated Press

Speaking to The Associated Press from exile in Saudi Arabia, Sharif said the military ruler's desperation to cling to power has pushed Pakistan to the brink of chaos and was only helping Islamic militants.

Sharif said thousands of his opposition party's supporters have been rounded up since Musharraf declared emergency rule over the weekend. He urged the Pakistani public to protest, and predicted many would in order to oppose the U.S.-allied general.

"One man is holding the entire nation hostage for his personal interests," Sharif said. "The political forces, the lawyers and civil community that believe in moderation and democracy, they are sidelined today. Who is going to get the benefit? It will be the radicals and extremists. They will thrive now.

"Mr. Musharraf is a man who has outlived his utility in terms of fighting any battle against terror."

Musharraf suspended the constitution Saturday after declaring a state of emergency. He has since ousted independent-minded Supreme Court judges, put a stranglehold on the media and granted sweeping powers to authorities to crush dissent.

While Musharraf says emergency powers are needed so the government can better fight Islamic extremists, his crackdown has been aimed at lawyers and liberal political activists opposed to his rule. The Supreme Court, in particular, had chipped away at his powers this year.

Musharraf ousted Sharif in a 1999 coup and sent him into exile a year later. Sharif attempted to return in September after the Supreme Court ruled he was free to stay in his homeland, but Musharraf swiftly booted him back.

Since he declared the emergency, Western allies have urged Musharraf to restore the constitution, resign as army chief and hold elections on schedule by January. But neither the U.S. and Britain have given a sign yet that they plan to curtail aid to Pakistan, a key ally in the fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban.

Sharif said he did not support cutting assistance to Pakistan, but urged Western governments to "dissociate themselves" from Musharraf. Unless the state of emergency was reversed and Musharraf ousted, the country could be pitched toward "catastrophe," he warned.

"Even the ruling junta today does not know how to get out of this situation they have got into," Sharif said.

Sharif, the son of an industrialist who headed two conservative governments in the 1990s and presided over Pakistan's first nuclear tests, has struggled to galvanize opposition to Musharraf in the run-up to the next elections.

Musharraf's success in thwarting Sharif's return was a bitter blow to the former prime minister's hopes of leading a campaign against military rule. But he could yet benefit from his refusal to negotiate a deal with Musharraf _ unlike another exiled premier, Benazir Bhutto _ if the military leader falls.

Sharif's and Bhutto's are the two main secular political parties in the Islamic nation.

Sharif told the AP that unless he was able to return to Pakistan before elections, as Bhutto has been allowed to do, the vote would be a "farce."

There has been little sign so far of the wider public joining lawyers and opposition activists in defying a ban on rallies that have been squashed by police across Pakistan. But Sharif predicted "large numbers" would show their anger in the days ahead.

"If he still continues to cling onto power, then of course people will not keep watching the situation in their homes and remain silent spectators. They will come on the streets," the opposition leader said.

Lawyers have been at the forefront of the resistance, a movement that emerged this spring after Musharraf's botched attempt to fire Pakistan's independent-minded top judge, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry.

Sharif claimed Musharraf declared the emergency and sidelined most of the Supreme Court's judges because they were about to rule against his controversial re-election.

Musharraf says the court was obstructing his government in its ability to fight terrorism. Pakistan is struggling to contain a deadly surge in suicide attacks and is losing control of tracts of its northwestern frontier with Afghanistan to pro-Taliban militants.

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