Mahmud Ali Durrani, Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, told CNN on Sunday that while the intelligence services of the two countries are working together to hunt out Al Qaeda in the border areas, there do exist differences which he said need to be reconciled.
Asked about the state of emergency in Pakistan that appeared imminent last week, Durrani replied that a state of emergency was not what people thought it was. Provided for in the Constitution, President Musharraf did at one point consider imposing it to deal with terrorist incidents but decided not to. An emergency would not have meant that the parliament was going away or rights were to be suspended. The government did consider it for a limited period, fundamentally to deal with a "spate of suicide bombings". It was going to be a "counter-terrorism strategy". But then the president decided not to impose it after having looked at all the pros and cons. He denied that the president was thinking of a state of emergency to solidify his hold on power, arguing that the only purpose would have been to deal with terrorism and suicide bombings. "It was not for power grabbing. He is there. He is the president. He has the parliament, he has the prime minister. So what is the problem? Why should be grab power which he already has?" he asked. |