The Hindu : International : PML(Q) pressures Musharraf over pact with Benazir

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Friday, Aug 31, 2007
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International

PML(Q) pressures Musharraf over pact with Benazir

Nirupama Subramanian

“Concessions” to PPP cause discontent

ISLAMABAD: As President Pervez Musharraf and Pakistan People’s Party leader Benazir Bhutto continue discussions towards a power-sharing agreement, resistance from the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Q) forced the presidential camp to play down the talks and send out the message that it would not be a total surrender to the opposition leader.

PML(Q) leaders held a series of crisis meetings through the day among themselves and with Gen. Musharraf to assess their position in the scheme of things.

Information Minister Muhammed Ali Durrani later told journalists at a specially convened press conference that the government was not considering removing a constitutional provision that enables the President to dissolve Parliament.

Removing this provision from the Constitution is one of Ms. Bhutto’s main demands in exchange for support to Gen. Musharraf.

The Minister said the provision, Article 58 (2) (b), was a safety mechanism that had saved the country from martial law on several occasions, and it would remain undisturbed.

Mr. Sharif removed the provision during his second term as Prime Minister, but Gen. Musharraf had it reinserted in the Constitution after taking power.

The presidential camp is also distancing itself from a claim by a senior Minister that the issue of the uniform is resolved, and statements by Ms. Bhutto that Gen. Musharraf had agreed to step down as army chief.

Deadline denied

Late on Wednesday, a presidential spokesman denied that Gen. Musharraf was set a 48-hour deadline by Ms Bhutto. He said, “While the President believed in dialogue and deliberations on all important national issues, he never worked under any pressure or ultimatum.”

He added that the President would take all decisions only in national interest at appropriate times according to the Constitution and the law. Senior PML(Q) leaders are said to be aghast that Gen. Musharraf is ready to concede so much ground to the PPP so early in the game, and have communicated to him that this could set off a flood of desertions to the PML(N), the parent party of many Q Leaguers, leaving him with only a thin political cushion to fallback on for his re-election.

They are said to have complained bitterly to Gen. Musharraf that he had not taken them into confidence. In response, the President calmed their nerves by assuring them that there was no deal yet, and that they would be fully on board when it was finalised.

Accordingly, Mr. Durrani rejected that Gen. Musharraf was tying up a deal with Ms. Bhutto.

He too was emphatic to journalists that the decision about the uniform was the President’s alone, and there was no deadline for this.

But the PPP continued to claim that Gen. Musharraf had agreed to relinquish his army post before re-election. Party spokesman Farahtullah Babar said the President had also agreed to lift the bar on two-term Prime Ministers taking the office a third time.

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