Sharif opposes Pakistan election delay |
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Published
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Mon, 31 Dec 2007 14:00
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LAHORE, Pakistan (Thomson Financial) - Former Pakistan premier Nawaz Sharif said today that elections should be held on time on Jan 8, adding that President Pervez Musharraf should be replaced by a national unity government.'Nobody here wants the elections to go after January 8,' Sharif told a news conference in the eastern city of Lahore, confirming that he had abandoned earlier plans to boycott the poll.His comments came after Pakistani officials said that next week's vote would be delayed for at least four weeks due to a wave of unrest following the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.Sharif, who has repeatedly called for Musharraf's resignation, said the president was the root cause of the violence.'He is a one-man calamity and source of all the problems,' Sharif said. 'We demand that he must immediately resign. This will end all chaos and unrest in the country.'He said that a 'new president should form a government of national consensus. The new national government should arrange free and fair elections.'Sharif was ousted as prime minister by Musharraf in 1999. He was in exile for seven years before returning to the country in November, a few weeks after Bhutto also came back to Pakistan from exile.However a spokesman for Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N party said earlier today that a 'short postponement' of the elections 'would be acceptable'.tf.TFN-Europe_newsdesk@thomson.comcmr/sljCOPYRIGHTCopyright Thomson Financial News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Financial News.
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