Search the Internet          Tips

Musharraf invites 24 parties to discuss his India visit

In a bid to secure political legitimacy ahead of the Indo-Pak summit, Pakistan President Gen Pervez Musharraf on Saturday invited 24 political parties for a meeting on June 27 to discuss his visit to India and has planned to meet Islamic clerics, scholars and leading editors.

An official statement in Islamabad said invitations had been sent on behalf of the government by the chief of protocol.

Gen Musharraf has also planned similar meetings with Islamic clerics, religious scholars and senior editors of the national press, it said.

After this, Gen Musharraf is expected to call a similar get-together with leaders from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

The invitations for former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif led Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) have been sent in the name of second rung leaders.

Those invited included the third largest party, the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), led by Altaf Hussain, former cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan and leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami Qazi Hussain Ahmad.

The chief of the 16-party Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD), Nawabzada Nasurulla Khan was also invited to the meeting.

Though all the parties earlier insisted that Gen Musharraf should meet them before he left for India, most of them now appear to have decided to boycott the meeting in view of Gen Musharraf's June 20 decision to take over as the president, which was widely criticised by almost all mainstream political parties.

The PPP too appeared to have decided to boycott the meeting as it does not want to give legitimacy to Gen Musharraf's presidency. Benazir had already said that she would not meet Musharraf even if he invites her.

The boycott is officially expected to be announced on June 26, after the meeting of the ARD leaders.

The meeting was headed for trouble even before the invitations had been sent out as PML-N called for a boycott of the meeting criticising Gen Musharraf's 'illegal and unconstitutional' decision to take over as the president.

Party's acting president Javed Hashmi had said that the party would press for the ARD to boycott the meeting.

Indo-Pak Summit 2001: The Complete Coverage

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report