Asif, Nawaz to work with president

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Asif, Nawaz to work with president
Posted by Nksagar in ibibo news Nksagar on February 23, 2008 12:13:00 PM



The meetings, mainly of American and British ambassadors with the leaders of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), have led to speculations about possible counsels to the makers of the future government to try to co-exist with Musharraf despite years of their mutual hostility.

No details have been available of the talks, except that matters about transition to democracy and counter-terrorism were among subjects discussed, indicating the West’s concerns about the future of Pakistan’s key role in the so-called war on terrorism of which the president is the architect.

US ambassador Anne W. Paterson on Friday had a second contact with PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari within a few days, though this time accompanied by a Congressional delegation that earlier met President Musharraf.

British High Commissioner Robert Brinkley held a second meeting with Mr Sharif, only a day after the PML-N leader reiterated his hard line against the man who toppled him as prime minister in the Oct 12, 1999 coup, by telling a news conference that “sooner he (president) left the better”.

Washington’s known preference for a power-sharing between Musharraf and the PPP had led to the return of PPP leader Benazir Bhutto to Pakistan after about nine years of self-imposed foreign exile.
US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher has warned not to make the assumption that President Pervez Musharraf will have no role in a future administrative set-up in Pakistan.

“I wouldn’t make that assumption … I would look at positions the parties are taking. And I would just be patient and wait,” said Mr Boucher when a reporter asked him why the US still talked about working with Mr Musharraf when most of the future government and new members of parliament appear unwilling to work with him.

Mr Boucher, who was in Brussels for biannual consultations with America’s European allies, made these remarks at a media roundtable.

A transcript released by the State Department in Washington on Friday quoted Mr Boucher as saying that as the process for selecting the new government in Pakistan continues, “We look forward to working with whoever emerges as prime minister and look forward to working with President Musharraf in his new role.”

He said that before making any assumption about President Musharraf’s role in the new set-up, “people will have to see how the whole thing settles out.”

Asked can the US envisage working with a government that does not have Mr Musharraf as its head, Mr Boucher said: “We can envisage working with a Pakistani government that is duly constituted, particularly through an election.” Mr Boucher said he would not like to envisage what role Mr Musharraf will have in the government, noting that “the division of powers between the president and prime minister is an issue in Pakistan.”



But any deal cut then was overtaken by Ms Bhutto’s Dec 27 assassination in a gun-and-bomb attack after she addressed a campaign rally in Rawalpindi and the rout of the previously ruling and pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League in the elections, which left the two main winning parties the most sensible course of power-sharing between themselves rather than with those who will remain virtual political untouchables for now.

President Musharraf’s worries are not only about a constant ridicule across the country and increasing demands that he step aside, but also the commitment of opposition parties to clip the presidency of its sweeping powers without which he would remain just nominal head of state who must only act on the advice of a prime minister and not have the present authority to sack a prime minister, dissolve parliament and choose the heads of the armed forces.

The winning parties do not recognise President Musharraf’s controversial election for another term in October by a dying parliamentary college as valid, mainly on the ground that he blocked the hearing by a Supreme Court bench of challenges to his candidacy in army uniform by imposing an extra-constitutional emergency under which about 60 judges of the Supreme Court and provincial high courts were sacked for refusing or not being called to take oath under a Provisional Constitution Order.

While the winning political parties are ready to take a parliamentary course to deal with the aftermath of the emergency, the legal community has renewed its campaign for the restoration of the pre-Nov 3 judiciary, which could overturn the post-Nov 3 Supreme Court’s validation of the president’s candidacy.

The lawyers’ threat to organise a big march on Islamabad on March 9 if the pre-Nov 3 judiciary is not restored by then is likely to put the elected parties to test. These parties are unlikely to have formed a coalition government by that time but they will have to make a commitment to the lawyers and risk their honeymoon being spoiled by the lawyers’ agitation.