International   

Musharraf shores up support

ISLAMABAD: As he kicks into re-election mode, President Pervez Musharraf has been travelling through the politically powerful Punjab province meeting parliamentarians and provincial legislators of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Q) and giving assurances that negotiations with Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto did not mean that he was about to ditch them.

In meetings in Bhawalpur and Multan with legislators and party workers from several constituencies in southern Punjab on Saturday, Gen. Musharraf said negotiations were still on with the Pakistan People’s Party, but that “any decision that will be taken will be in favour of the ruling party”, local television reported.

The ruling party is nervous that it could be sidelined by a deal between Gen. Musharraf and Ms. Bhutto, who heads Pakistan’s largest party. The PML(Q) is also uneasy that President Musharraf’s plan to contest elections in uniform will add momentum to his plummeting popularity.

He asked the legislators not to worry about the uniform issue, and that he was permitted to hold the office of chief of army staff until December 2007 by the Constitution and Supreme Court.

Gen. Musharraf made an identical pitch to another group of legislators in Lahore on Friday. He said he was pursuing the negotiations with PPP with the full knowledge of the ruling party president Chaudhary Shujat Hussain, and the Punjab Chief Minister Pervez Elahi.

“Whatever will be the outcome, will be with their full consultations,” he told the legislators, who had assembled from Gujranwala and Lahore.

The President told the legislators from constituencies in Gujranwala and Lahore that he was confident that he could not be legally challenged on his re-election for another term. He said he qualified for another term, which he wanted not for himself, but in the interests of the country.

Significantly, Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid said at a press conference in Lahore on Saturday that if there was any attempt to obstruct the President’s re-election, “anything” was possible in the country including the declaration of emergency.

The ruling party is also edgy about the possible return of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to Pakistan that could give strength to the Opposition campaign, and it appears that the Government is trying to make it difficult for Mr. Sharif to return.

In identical petitions, the Sharif brothers have asked the Supreme Court to direct the Government not to obstruct their return to Pakistan.

But on Friday, a special court admitted a petition from the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to reopen three corruption cases against Mr. Sharif and several members of his family.

The order came on a NAB petition to the “accountability” court in Rawalpindi on August 3 seeking approval for reopening three cases that had been “adjourned” in April 2001, months after the Sharif family was sent into political exile to Saudi Arabia.

Deputy-Prosecutor General Zulifikar Bhutta said the cases had remained “pending” all these years and were being reopened at this point because it had come to the notice of the Government that some of the accused in the cases were present in the country.

The court will begin hearing the NAB plea on August 25. Also, Attorney-General Malik Qayuum have said that if Mr. Sharif returned now, he would have to serve out the sentences handed to him after his conviction in several cases.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Moscow resumes global bomber patrols
172 trapped in flooded Chinese coal mine
Musharraf shores up support
Poverty can be eradicated: Yunus
Aid for Zimbabwe
Kazakhs go to the polls
Hurricane batters the Caribbean
Proud to be an Indian, says Amitabh Bachchan
No threat to Asian economies: Jeffrey Sachs

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu