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BRUSSEL - PAKISTAN'S President Pervez Musharraf pledged on Monday that next month's elections would be free and fair and that he would hand over power to whoever wins them.
'We must have fair and transparent elections ... and peaceful elections' on Feb 18, he said in Brussels. 'Whoever wins, obviously power will be handed over to them. We are going to be returning to free, fair and transparent elections, and peaceful elections,' he said, despite the slow progress made on the polls.
Ahead of his trip, European officials have raised pressure on Mr Musharraf to ensure that the elections are 'free and fair' amid concerns that the nuclear-armed country is tipping towards chaos.
'We are for democracy and I have introduced the essence of democracy, but we cannot be as forward looking as you (in the West) are,' he told reporters, non-governmental organisations and business leaders at a breakfast event.
'Allow us some time to reach that state,' he said.
He acknowledged that there was a particular climate in Pakistan in which those who lose the elections would be tempted to cry foul, but he underlined: 'Whatever bugs we have had in the system have been removed'.
Mr Musharraf was in Brussels at the start of a four-country European tour aimed at bolstering his credibility with the West after months of chaos in Pakistan.
The Pakistani head of state is scheduled to meet EU foreign policy Javier Solana and NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, as well as address the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee.
Mr Musharraf, in his most important trip abroad since the crisis began, also has trade and defence cooperation talks planned with Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt.
His visits to Britain, France, Belgium and the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, come amid fears from his foreign allies that the nuclear-armed Islamic republic is spinning towards crisis. -- AFP
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