Stephen Smith (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Fremantle for her question. The Australian government welcomes the largely peaceful conduct of parliamentary elections in Pakistan on Monday of this week, 18 February. Members, of course, would be aware that Pakistan has had to overcome very significant difficulties to see the conduct of this election. The election was of course delayed by the shocking assassination of Benazir Bhutto in December of last year, but we welcome the fact that the elections have now been conducted.

When I rang the then foreign minister of Pakistan, Mr ul Haque, to relay Australia’s shock and sadness at the assassination of Mrs Bhutto, I made the point that the Australian government very strongly believed that the best way forward for Pakistan was to pursue the election, the best way forward for Pakistan was to have an election where there was full and free participation and which was conducted in a peaceable manner, and that the best way forward for Pakistan to combat extremism and terrorism was by restoration of democracy and restoration of the rule of law.

Whilst the Pakistan election commission will not formally complete and declare the election for the next couple of days and whilst we will not see, for example, any independent international observations either from the US teams or from the EU teams until later tonight or tomorrow, it is clear that the opposition parties have made very substantial gains. The party of the late Benazir Bhutto, the PPP, led since her assassination by Mr Zardari, at last count had won up to 87 seats. The PML-N, led by former Prime Minister Sharif, has won 66 seats out of the 268 seats up for contest. So it is quite clear that for the first occasion at a democratically held election we see the demise of a Pakistan government which has for the first occasion run its full term.

We will await with interest those formal reports of the election observers and the full and complete conduct of the election by the Pakistan election commission. We will of course be watching the election aftermath and its consequences very closely, but we are very pleased that President Musharraf has indicated that he is prepared and willing to cooperate with any new government which is formed out of the parliament as a result of these elections. We believe that that is very important and we encourage all parties in Pakistan to engage in such discussions in a peaceful and constructive way.

Stability, democracy and the rule of law are very, very important to Australia. That is because any adverse implications for Pakistan, particularly any adverse implications for the south of Pakistan so far as extremism and terrorism are concerned, have adverse implications and consequences for the over 1,000 Australian troops in the south of Afghanistan. Deleterious consequences for Pakistan lead to deleterious consequences for Afghanistan. It is very important that Australia and the international community support very strongly the extension of democracy in Pakistan, the extension of the rule of law. We look forward, after the conduct of a relatively peaceful election, to seeing a peaceful transition to a new government in Pakistan in cooperation with the current President.

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