ISLAMABAD, Pakistan?Gen. Pervez Musharraf promised a new crackdown on terrorism and called for an end to national divisions following fraud allegations about a referendum endorsing him for five more years as president.
“In the days to come, a new campaign on terrorism will be announced,” Musharraf said in a nationally televised speech Thursday, adding that Pakistanis want “an end to sectarianism and extremism.”
Musharraf’s supporters had hoped Tuesday’s referendum would strengthen the president, who turned the country away from support of Afghanistan’s Taliban militia to join the U.S.-led coalition against terror and earlier this year announced a crackdown on Islamic extremists at home. Musharraf also seeks constitutional reforms, including a bigger role for the military in the government.
“We should forget the tensions of the past and look toward the future in the interest of Pakistan,” Musharraf said in the 10 minute speech. In keeping with the low-key tone of his comments, he wore a sober gray suit instead of his general’s uniform.
But analysts predicted worsening polarization Thursday as opposition politicians, charging the voting was fraudulent, pledged to keep up their fight to unseat him.
“We will use every possible lawful tactic to force this government out of power,” said Liaquat Baluch, a senior leader of the country’s main hardline religious group, the Jamaat-e-Islami, or the Islamic Party.
Two bombs that went off Thursday in Karachi underlined the challenges facing Musharraf as he tries to curb violence and extremism in this poor South Asian Islamic nation.
A 12-year-old boy was killed and six members of his family wounded in the early morning blasts, which came as a one day strike began in the port city. The ethnic-based Muttahida Qami Movement, or United National Movement, had called the strike to protest the killings of two prominent members last week.
The movement also had joined the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy, representing Pakistan’s main political parties, in calling for a boycott of the referendum.
The government, however, said the turnout was more than 50 percent, higher than past elections and beyond even its own expectations. Almost 98 percent of voters supported Musharraf, the Election Commission said.
Commission head Irshad Hasan Khan, a retired chief justice, rejected charges of fraud, saying he and his team of judges visited many polling stations across the country and found that the polling was done fairly.
But rival politicians and the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan called the figures inflated, accusing the government of stuffing ballot boxes and allowing people to cast multiple ballots.
“His controversial victory has deepened the political crisis,” Baluch said. “We have lost faith in the government and the independence of the Election Commission.”
Leaders of the political alliance, which includes the Islamic Party as well as the parties of ousted prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nazir Sharif, called an emergency meeting for Saturday in the capital, Islamabad, to plan their next step, said Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, chief of the alliance.
Musharraf, Pakistan’s top general, seized power in a coup in 1999. The Supreme Court gave him three years to introduce reforms, root out corruption and return the country to democracy.
But Musharraf, saying his work is not finished, called the referendum to seek a mandate for another five years.