The Hindu : Musharraf wants national assembly to 'elect' premier

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 24, 2002

International

International

Musharraf wants national assembly to 'elect' premier

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD Oct. 23. 0 In his first comments on the outcome of the general elections, the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf expressed the hope that the newly-elected members of the National Assembly would `elect' their own Prime Minister.

Presiding over the weekly Cabinet meeting here today, Gen. Musharraf said that `in the best interests of parliamentary democracy' he expected the newly-elected members of the National Assembly to elect the premier.

Implied in the statement of Gen. Musharraf is the suggestion that he would not invite the leader of any party to explore formation of the new government. The statement of Gen. Musharraf assumes significance in the context of requests made by a leader of the rebel Muslim Leaguers nicknamed the `King's party' to allow him to form the next government.

The process of government formation has become very complicated thanks to the fractured mandate in the House and the peculiar combination of parties thrown up in the October 10 general elections. Though the rebel Leaguers have emerged as the single largest party with 77 seats, they are way behind the simple majority of 136 required in a House of 272 members.

The Pakistan People's Party led by the former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, is the number two party in the National Assembly with 63 seats. The party is faced with a serious dilemma in joining hands with the rebel Leaguers as a section of the party believes that it would entail `compromise' with Gen. Musharraf.

Indications are that Mrs. Bhutto would rather prefer to back the religious alliance, despite serious differences on foreign policy issues, from outside rather than go with pro-military parties.

The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), the alliance of six religious parties that has got over 50 seats, is willing to join hands with any party or parties as long as they are ready to entrust the post of Prime Minister to its nominee and a vocal pro-Taliban leader, Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

No one has a clue as to how the complex situation would be resolved in the next few days.

It is over two weeks after the election and the Musharraf regime is already under flak for `deliberately' delaying the process of transfer of power from the military to a civilian set-up.

It is alleged that the military has serious stakes in the future set-up as it wants to ensure that institutionalisation of its role in governance and continuation of Gen. Musharraf as President and Chief of Army Staff (COAS).

The Pakistan Law Minister, Khalid Ranja, said on Tuesday that the President would not nominate any parliamentary party to form the government unless asked by Parliament.

``The Constitutional clause that empowers the President to nominate the Prime Minister stands suspended,'' he told the state-controlled news agency, Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) in a panel interview.

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