Admitting that Osama bin Laden was ‘‘freely moving’’ between Pakistan and Afghanistan, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said besides himself and the ISI, US President George Bush and CIA should share the blame for failure to capture the Al Qaeda leader. ‘‘If I am to be blamed, President Bush is equally to be blamed. If the ISI is to be blamed then the CIA is equally to be blamed,’’ he said in an interview to The Globe and The Mail on Friday. Musharraf said despite a $25 million reward, Osama’s arrest may take years as he appeared to have been benefited by a groundswell of anti-American passion in the region since the war in Iraq. He said Osama is alive and has been moving freely between Afghanistan and Pakistan. He admitted Osama might have ventured into major Pakistani cities such as Rawalpindi. ‘‘It’s a possibility. I won’t rule it out.’’Under pressure from Opposition to quit as Army Chief, Musharraf has said he would do so only after turning the country into a ‘‘stable democracy’’. ‘‘I do understand this is not democratic and I’ve said this very openly in Pakistan.But under the present circumstances of turmoil in the region.there is a requirement of stability and unity of command,’’ Musharraf told the Canadian Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee at Ottawa on Friday. ‘‘The moment the democratic structure stabilises, I will remove the uniform.’’Pak Opp chief’s death roils allianceIslamabad: The grand old man of Pakistani politics, who brought the two main Opposition parties together in the fight against the country’s military ruler, died on Saturday, raising concerns over the future of the alliance. Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, 85, died of a heart attack, his doctors said. Khan, who headed the Pakistan Democratic Party, brought together the rival parties of former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif on one platform against Musharraf’s military government.Bhutto and Sharif, both living in exile, accepted Khan as the chief of the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD), after Musharraf led a coup against Sharif in 1999. ‘‘It is a serious setback to the alliance,’’ Farhatullah Babur, member of the Upper House and a spokesman for the Bhutto’s Pakistan’s Peoples Party (PPP), said. ‘‘He had kept the two parties with opposing political views together under the ARD,’’ Babur added. Nepal welcomes Maoist ceasefireKATHMANDU: Welcoming the unilateral ceasefire announced by Maoists during Vijaya Dashami, the Nepal government on Saturday said the rebels should commit themselves to peace by abandoning violence. ‘‘We welcome the unilateral ceasefire announced by the Maoists and it is good to stop violence, terror and murder,’’ Minister for Information and Communication Kamal Thapa said. He said the rebels should commit themselves to seek peaceful solution to the problem by abandoning violence and terror, to respect the aspirations of the people of Nepal.Despite the nine-day truce, officials said 15 people including 12 rebels have been killed and suspected Maoists bombed five government facilities in Janakpur, 250 km southeast of Kathmandu.
