The president urged all the political parties to fulfill their responsibilities of keeping up the democratic process in a peaceful manner, according to the rules and regulations of the Election Commission of Pakistan. He called upon the political leaders with special reference to former prime ministers Mian Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto to play their due role. I think it is a positive development that both the Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif returned to Pakistan. We provided the level playing field to them and now it is up to them along with other leaders to make the democratic process a success , Musharraf said. Referring to general January 8 general elections, the president stressed upon the politicians to avoid even considering of boycotting the next schedule elections and concentrate on their election campaign to complete the third stage of restoration of real democracy in the country. I assure you all that the elections will be held in a fair, free and transparent way, he said adding that some elements were talking about the boycott of elections and creating hurdles in the way of election process. He advised such politicians to cooperate with the Election Commission in holding the elections. Spelling out his future strategy, Musharraf said national consensus, political reconciliation and good governance were the cornerstone of his policy to make Pakistan a successful country on the global horizon. He defended his decision of imposing emergency, and said the security situation reached a dangerous level in before Nov 3 and certain quarters were busy in derailing the process of revival of true democracy. It was inevitable on my part to take such decision of imposing emergency in compulsion after taking the then government, politicians and businessmen on board. I was seeing danger to Pakistan through my eyes and also to the economy that was revived in the last eight years, so, I took the decision to save the country from all such dangers. Now, Musharraf said, as the democracy has come back on track, he has taken oath as a civilian president and the law and order situation has been improved, therefore, there is no need of emergency any more. The president came harsh on some media persons, without mentioning their names, in the private TV channels and said they played a negative role. They added further fuel to the already poor security situation and also exploited the political crisis. Musharraf recalled that as part of restoration of democracy, the two stages have been completed, including the periods of 1999-2002 and 2002-07 respectively. With his election as president, the third and important stage began that would be completed by holding the elections in January 2008. He said the people were empowered in real terms with special reference to increasing women share in the democratic process, minorities and also youth participation in the country s political process increased.--SPA www.spa.gov.sa/504611