‘Pak polls will be totally discredited if Musharraf wins’

Senator Joseph Biden said if Musharraf's party beats all odds and ends up being the winner, then Pak polls would be totally discredited.

A top Democrat lawmaker has said the polls in Pakistan will be “totally discredited” if the party backing President Musharraf emerges victorious.

“If Musharraf’s party, PML-Q, beats all odds and ends up being the winner here, I think it will be viewed as a totally discredited undertaking,” head of Senate Foreign Relations Committee Joseph Biden said.

Senator Biden along with top Democrat John Kerry and Republican Chuck Hagel are in Pakistan to monitor the elections. They have been consistent critics of the Bush administration’s policy towards Pakistan.

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“And then I think you’ll see some movement in the street here. And the question will be whether or not the military moves on the population,” he said, adding my overwhelming instinct is the military does not want a confrontation with the population.

Biden said he had spoken to President Musharraf several times and is scheduled to meet with him on Tuesday.

Bhutto wanted to get out and actively campaign, and they (Musharraf’s administration) did not provide the security thinking that would, in my view, keep her from being aggressive in her campaigning outside of her constituency, he said in an interview to CNN.

The Delaware Senator said according to his judgement there was not a “great deal” of violence in the country.

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He said, if the Pakistani people and the international community conclude that this election was rigged, then the only pressure point that the United States has to deal with Musharraf is through the military.”

“The United States benefits with a stable Pakistan, not just as it relates to terror, to Indian subcontinent, to 160 million people deciding to move toward a robust democracy,” Biden said.