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Musharraf to seek re-election in 2007

AFP, Islamabad
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf will seek another five-year term as head of state after his current tenure ends in 2007, the country's Information Minister Sheikh Rashid said Tuesday.
"He will seek another term," Rashid told AFP by telephone from the eastern city of Lahore. "He will stay as president beyond 2007 because Pakistan needs his leadership."
The minister declined to comment on whether Musharraf, who is also the army chief, would retain the dual position when he seeks reelection. It was generally considered that Musharraf would remain at the helm after the elections in 2007, but he had not until now publicly declared his intentions.
The minister said the parties of former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif -- who are both living in exile and have been barred by Musharraf from the electoral arena -- would back Musharraf.
"All of them are in indirect contact with him (Musharraf)," he said.
"Musharraf will win the vote."
Bhutto's party has acknowledged contact with Musharraf for a possible rapprochement but demands that he shed the military uniform and open the door for the former prime minister to return and resume her political career.
"There is no question of the party entering into any sort of talks unless Benazir Bhutto is allowed to return to politics," party spokesman Raza Rabbani told AFP.
The Pakistan Muslim League of Sharif, whom Musharraf exiled to Saudi Arabia in December 2000 for a decade, a year after toppling his government, has denied any contacts.
A spokesman for Sharif's party, Siddiqul Farooq, said Musharraf was a dictator and his party rejected his regime. "He is trying to present himself as a democrat with a sham rubber stamp parliament and a democratic label but he remains a dictator," Farooq told AFP.
Musharraf, who grabbed power in a coup in October 1999, appointed himself president in June 2001. He won a heavily criticized referendum in April 2002, followed by a parliamentary vote of confidence a year later.
After initial isolation following the coup Musharraf became a darling of the West in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks on
United States when he abandoned the Taliban and joined the international coalition and aided the ouster of the hardline regime in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Musharraf also reneged on his public pledge to quit the military post by the end of 2004, saying the country needed him in uniform to tackle terrorism and face challenges including a turnaround in relations with rival nuclear neighbour India.
The military ruler has been rewarded by the United States with substantial economic and financial assistance.
"He is the most popular leader and he has raised Pakistan's stature in the world," the information minister said.