Ex-CJ tried to remove me illegally: President
vows to work with new Govt
DM Monitoring

ISLAMABAD, Dec 11, (AFP) President Pervez Musharraf pledged in an interview broadcast Tuesday to cooperate with whoever wins January’s general elections, saying that he was not a “trouble creator”. Musharraf told Al-Jazeera’s English channel: “I will try to work with anyone who comes to power after the elections. I interact with people quite well, I am not such a trouble creator.” He had no conciliatory words however for the country’s ousted chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, saying that he had to impose emergency rule on November 3 because the judge was “illegally trying to remove me.”
“What would have happened if we allowed this chief justice to have his own way? We would have landed this country into chaos.” Musharraf meanwhile said he would keep a close relationship with the military, despite quitting as army chief on November 28 and becoming a civilian president. “My relationship with the army is not direct, obviously. There is protocol obviously, there is the chief of army staff,” he said. President Pervez Musharraf pledged Tuesday to cooperate with whoever wins January’s crucial general elections, saying that he was not a “trouble creator.”
Opposition leaders and former premiers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif have accused Musharraf of wanting to rig the polls in favour of parties that back him, although both have declined to boycott the elections. But Musharraf, who has promised to lift a five-week-old state of emergency on Saturday, told Al-Jazeera’s English channel that he was willing to work with the victors of the crunch polls on January 8. “I will try to work with anyone who comes to power after the elections,” Musharraf said in an interview broadcast Tuesday.
“I interact with people quite well, I am not such a trouble creator.” The aftermath of the elections promises to be chaotic, with Musharraf needing a two-thirds majority to indemnify himself for suspending the constitution under the November 3 declaration of emergency rule. Although both Bhutto and Sharif are currently barred from serving a third term in office, neither has shown much inclination to let their parties cooperate with him after the elections.
After flying back to Islamabad from Dubai, Bhutto on Tuesday hailed Sharif for agreeing not to boycott the election, saying that the presence of the country’s big two parties would force a fair poll. “Nawaz Sharif has taken a correct decision that his party should participate in the election,” Bhutto told reporters, following Sharif’s announcement at the weekend that it would contest the polls.
“When the two big parties participate, the government will be compelled to hold fair elections. It will strengthen democracy,” added Bhutto. Bhutto said late last month that her Pakistan People’s Party would also take part.