The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Washington

Pakistan's cricket hero-turned-politician Imran Khan called on the United States Thursday to pressure President Pervez Musharraf to reinstate sacked top judges or face the prospect of Kenya-type post-election violence. Khan, speaking in Washington, said that if Musharraf, a key US "war on terror" ally, rigged February 18 parliamentary elections as speculated, "it is, in fact, going to exacerbate everything. "The chances are that we would have a Kenya-type situation, where people are not going to accept their election results" and "the country will sink into a deeper crisis," warned Khan, leader of the marginal Tehrik-e-Insaaf (Movement for Justice) party, which is boycotting the polls. Kenya's disputed December 27 elections followed weeks of violence in which close to 800 people have died and a quarter of a million displaced. Khan regretted that President George W. Bush's administration had not pushed Musharraf for the reinstatement of the deposed chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad, who is under house arrest.