Pakistan President Hits Out at 'Conspiracies'
Pakistan's embattled president on Tuesday used the fourth anniversary of his wife Benazir Bhutto's assassination to urge the country to foil "conspiracies against democracy."
Asif Ali Zardari, who has spent December fending off rampant speculation that he may be forced out of office, was expected to address tens of thousands of followers at the Bhutto mausoleum later Tuesday in a rare public speech.
Tensions between Zardari's unpopular civilian government and the military, which has ruled Pakistan for around half its existence, soared this month over a memo asking for U.S. intervention to stave off a feared military coup.
Bhutto, who was twice elected prime minister, was killed in a gun and suicide attack on December 27, 2007 in the garrison city of Rawalpindi after addressing an election rally.
"Today we pay tributes to her. The best way to do it is to defend and protect democracy and democratic institutions in the country and foil all conspiracies against it," said Zardari in a statement issued by his office.
"Let us on this day re-dedicate ourselves to the democratic mission of... Benazir Bhutto whose life was dedicated to fighting dictatorship and those seeking to defame and dismantle democratic institutions," the president said.
"I therefore urge all the democratic forces and the patriotic Pakistanis to foil all conspiracies against democracy and democratic institutions," he said.
Pakistan, a nuclear-armed state of 174 million, is rife with conspiracy theories. Zardari called his wife's murder a conspiracy "to rob Pakistan of its best hope to establish a fully functional democracy".
The presidency issued Zardari's statement after the army and the government appeared to make efforts to quell tensions fuelled by so-called "memogate."
Pakistan's army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, last week denied rumors that his military was plotting to overthrow the government.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani welcomed those remarks and denied rumors that he wanted to sack Kayani or ISI spymaster General Ahmad Shuja Pasha.
Kayani and Pasha have backed calls for an investigation into the memo, sent on May 10 and offering to overhaul Pakistan's security leadership in exchange for American help to reign in the military after the killing of Osama bin Laden.
Tens of thousands of people gathered at Bhutto's mausoleum on Tuesday, converging outside the heavily guarded perimeter of the compound to pay their respects, beating their chests and demanding that her killers be arrested.
"There will be hundreds of thousands of people by the end of the day," Asif Haider Shah, commissioner of Bhutto's native Larkana district, told Agence France Presse.
Around 6,000 policemen, hundreds of paramilitary officers, electronic gates, aerial surveillance and sniffer dogs were ensuring security, he said.
"More than 100,000 people have already visited or are coming to visit the mausoleum. The number will certainly increase by the end of the day," senior police official Hashim Laghari told AFP.
"We want revenge. Arrest Benazir's killers," the mourners chanted, carrying party flags and photographs of Bhutto, eulogizing her and her father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was hanged under military rule, an AFP photographer said.
Bhutto's son, Bilawal, who is co-chairman with his father of the main ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP), appealed for democracy to prevail in an editorial written in the English-language Express Tribune newspaper.
"We must remain committed to the evolution of a democratic Pakistan and reject the calls for confrontation between institutions," he wrote.
He also appealed to anti-Americanism, which has recently been inflamed by U.S. air strikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on November 26.
Millions of Pakistanis oppose the government's alliance with the U.S. war in Afghanistan and on Monday The New York Times said the counter-terrorism partnership can only survive in limited form.
"It is only under a democratic government that Pakistan finally stood up to demand respect from the United States and to do what the dictator with all his military might could not - evacuate the Shamsi airbase," wrote Bilawal.
The Americans were ordered to leave the airbase, widely believed to have been a hub for a now stalled drone war on Islamist militants, this month as part of Pakistan's retaliation for the November 26 air strikes.
Source: Agence France Presse
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