Press Releases 2007
President Bush Urges Elections In Pakistan “As Soon As Possible”
11/06/2007
Islamabad - U.S. President Bush made brief remarks about Pakistan while
welcoming the Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to the White House.
Also, during the event, the U.S. President took question from
journalists about the imposition of emergency in Pakistan.
Following are Pakistan-related excerpts from the transcript of his Oval office remarks:
(Begin Excerpt)
PRESIDENT BUSH:
And finally, I briefed the Prime Minister on Secretary Rice's recent
phone call with President Musharraf. I asked the Secretary to call him
to convey this message: that we expect there to be elections as soon as
possible, and that the President should remove his military uniform.
Previous to his decision we made it clear that these emergency measures
were -- would undermine democracy. Having said that, I did remind the
Prime Minister that President Musharraf has been a strong fighter
against extremists and radicals, that he understands the dangers posed
by radicals and extremists. After all, they tried to kill him three or
four times. And our hope is that he will restore democracy as quickly
as possible.
(Q & A)
Q Thank you, sir. It was
just last week that you said again that your administration stands with
people who yearn for liberty. How does that square with continuing to
partner with Pakistan, given what's going on now, and given that
President Musharraf has gone back on promises before?
PRESIDENT BUSH:
As I said earlier in my statement, that we made it clear to the
President that we would hope he wouldn't have declared the emergency
powers he declared. Now that he's made that decision, I hope now that
he hurry back to elections. And at the same time, we want to continue
working with him to fight these terrorists and extremists, who not only
have tried to kill him, but have used parts of his country from which
to launch attacks into Afghanistan, and/or are plotting attacks on
America.
Q Mr. President, you've called on President
Musharraf to restore democracy as quickly as possible. What will be the
consequences if he doesn't take your advice, and how seriously are you
weighing a cut in U.S. aid?
PRESIDENT BUSH: Once again,
it's a hypothetical question. I certainly hope he does take my advice,
and the advice of the Prime Minister of Turkey, and the advice of a lot
of other figures. And so that's -- all we can do is continue to work
with the President, as well as others in the Pak government, to make it
abundantly clear the position of the United States. And then obviously
we'll deal with it if something other than that happens.
(End Excerpt)