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Pakistan: Constitutional package to clip Musharraf’s wings |
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PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari has unveiled a draft of the constitutional reform package to be passed by Parliament which will transfer key powers of the President to the Prime Minister, including the appointment of the Service Chiefs and governors besides annulling the authority to dismiss the National Assembly.
After a meeting of the PPP Central Executive Committee which endorsed the package, Zardari told newsmen on May 24 that the package will limit the powers of the President and at the same time restrict the period of service of the Chief Justice. He said, the package aims at limiting the tenure of the President and take away the powers to dismiss an elected Parliament or appoint the Service Chiefs.
Although he did not fully unveil the entire 62-point package, it covers a wide spectrum of constitutional issues including powers of the President, the judiciary, punishing any adventurer who subverts the Constitution or the judges who validate that, allowing objective criticism of the Army or the judiciary, ending restrictions on two-time Prime Ministers to seek a third term, redefining the qualifications for fighting Presidential or Assembly elections and the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner.
The package which will be tabled in Parliament as the 18th Constitutional Amendment Bill before the forthcoming budget session, would balance the powers between the President and the Prime Minister and introduce strict punishment for subverting the Constitution. The most important of the proposed changes is the repeal of 58[2[B], the controversial Article that empowers the President to dissolve Parliament and dismiss the Government. “Whatever powers the President has under the Constitution in relation to Parliament, we want to take them away and give them back to the Prime Minister”, said Law Minister Naek at the Press conference with Zardari. Additionally, the President will also lose his power to appoint Governors. Zardari said his powers to appoint the Service Chiefs will go too. The President will serve “two full terms” instead of “two consecutive terms”, he said.
Another important amendment proposed in the package is to hold judges who validate military takeovers liable for treason. The amendment proposes that they would cease to hold office immediately. Also included in the package is a proposed change of name for the North West Frontier Province to Pakhtunkhwa, as demanded by the Awami National Party, the junior most partner in the ruling coalition.
On the restoration of sacked judges, an issue which threatened to split the ruling coalition, Zardari said they would be reinstated. However, he evaded a question about the curtailment of the tenure of the Chief Justice to three years that would ease out the deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry in June Though the clauses relating to the judiciary were not made public by Zardari, Nawaz Sharif’s PML[N] and the legal community have expressed reservations about proposals contained in the constitutional package for the reinstatement of judges. The legal community has said any attempt to fix a three-year term for the Chief Justice would be unacceptable as that would imply a plan to retire the deposed Iftikhar Chaudhry whose term ends next month. The PML[N] has demanded that the judges’ reinstatement be done not through an amendment but by a Parliamentary resolution as laid out in the March 8 Murree accord between it and the PPP. Offering a trade-off to the ruling PPP, Nawaz Sharif’s party has said it is ready to back a controversial law that scrapped graft cases against leaders of its coalition partner if its demand for reinstating judges sacked during the emergency is met. Observers say the PPP’s reluctance to reinstate the deposed judges stems from the belief that they could reopen legal challenges to the National Reconciliation Ordinance [NRO] issued by Musharraf in October last year which dropped all corruption cases against PPP leaders including Zardari and his slain wife Benazir Bhutto, and facilitated their return from self-imposed exile.
Ruling out further talks on the issue, Siddique-ul-Farooq, spokesman of the PML[N] which pulled out from the Cabinet on May 13 after it failed to get the judges reinstated remained non-committal on supporting the constitutional amendment package drafted by the PPP to restore the judiciary.
Nawaz Sharif for his part has reiterated that his party would not destabilize the Government. It would stay in the coalition without being a part of the government. In an interview on May 18, he regretted that the PPP did not stick to its commitment of restoring the judges and had appointed Salman Taseer as Punjab Governor without consulting the PML[N]. He alleged that Musharraf was hatching conspiracies against the coalition to drive a wedge between the PPP and the PML[N] and warned Zardari to beware of these intrigues. He said the Charter of Democracy he signed with Benazir Bhutto to free the country from military domination was still a valid document and his party was determined to implement it.
The rift between the PPP and the PML[N] has deepened with the PML-[N]-ruled Government in Punjab not heeding the PPP demand to release a close friend of Asif Zardari, Rehmat Shah Afridi, who is in jail for nine years on charges of drug smuggling. On the other hand, the PML[N] is not happy with the appointment of Manzoor Watoo, a prominent leader of the pro-Musharraf PML[Q] and a close friend of President Musharraf, as Special Adviser on Political Affairs to Prime Minister Gilani. Watoo’s induction into an important slot in the Government comes on the heels of the appointment of Salman Taseer and in quick succession to Nawaz Sharif’s decision to pull his Ministries out of the Federal Cabinet for failure to persuade Zardari to restore the deposed judges. Both Watoo and Taseer are President Musharraf’s nominees and are regarded as inveterate foes of Nawaz Sharif.
On the other hand, Musharraf has snapped his informal talks with the ruling PPP following Zardari’s stinging comments describing him as a “relic of the past” and an “unselected and non-democratic President’. According to Pakistani TV news channels, taking “serious note” of Zardari’s interview with PTI, the President has directed his close aides not to hold more talks with Zardari.
There is, however, no official word from the President’s Office or the PPP. In his interview with the Indian news agency, PTI, Zardari said Gen. Musharraf was standing between the people of Pakistan and democracy. He said there was tremendous pressure from people who want the President’s ouster and that he has “no choice”.
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