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CNN Live At Daybreak

Musharraf Confident in Power, Even in Face of Political, Economic Unrest

Aired October 31, 2001 - 05:32   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf says that he has accepted that U.S. airstrikes must continue. Pro Taliban supporters in Pakistan have been pressuring Musharraf to withdraw his support for the U.S., but the General appears to be unswayed as he continues plans to visit the U.S. next week.

CNN's Bill Delaney is in Islamabad and has more on the political pressures inside that country.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL DELANEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the bazaar of Pakistani politics, governments have never been stable currency. Since 1988 four elected administrations brought down -- 10 governments in all came and went. Two years ago General Pervez Musharraf took over the country. Some now wonder whether in time it will be taken back.

With poverty a bitter constant for tens of millions in Pakistan and Islamic fundamentalist protests growing amid the bombing in Afghanistan, Musharraf, at least for now, supports -- and defiance in the streets may be just beginning.

(on camera): Looming most immediately, is a challenge the President Musharraf's authority, a call to civil disobedience blocking the roads throughout the country starting as soon as November 7th -- a call from a coalition of more than two dozen religious parties known as the Pakistan and Afghanistan Defense Council.

(voice-over): For all of it, though, Musharraf's hold on power, many observers say, is not frail -- and opposition from the religious right now knew.

RASUL BAKHSH RAISE, POLITICAL ANALYST: Sensing that General had liberal tendencies, they opposed him from the very beginning. But they have not been able to persuade general public that General Pervez Musharraf is wrong and they are right on this particular issue of war in Afghanistan.

DELANEY: In the last democratic elections in Pakistan, in 1996, parties backed by religious extremists won less than five percent of the vote. This week President Musharraf scheduled bridge-building meetings with Pakistani political parties, including the country's largest, the Pakistan Muslim League.

The president pledged to the head of that party, democratic elections in Pakistan next year as scheduled, a willingness to let the people choose and maybe cede power, perhaps as good an indicator as any right now of Musharraf's confidence in his power despite the turbulence within and just over his borders.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(on camera): Another sign of President Musharraf's seeming sense of security here, as Daryn mentioned, the president travels next week to Washington where, of course, he will meet with President Bush. That journey happening right about the same time as those road blockages by dissenting groups here are about to start in Pakistan.

Daryn.

KAGAN: Bill, so we talked about the political pressure, what about the economic pressure that I imagine is hitting many markets in Pakistan by international partners?

DELANEY: Yes, that's -- that's a very critical factor and some analysts here, Daryn, would argue the most critical factor. What you're seeing most obviously here, as far as the economic situation is that multi-national corporations, foreign companies here, have removed a lot of their staffs in the past few weeks. Companies downsizing here, at least for the next several weeks to months if these companies, for any reason, decided that Pakistan was a place they didn't want to be at all, that would be quite devastating for this already very troubled economy and its $40 billion foreign debt, Daryn.

KAGAN: Bill Delaney in Islamabad. Bill, thank you.

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