The Hindu : Pak. Cabinet okays referendum plan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 04, 2002

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Pak. Cabinet okays referendum plan

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD APRIL 3. It is official now. The Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, would seek the mandate of people to stay on as President for a further period of five years. Opposition from the mainstream and religious parties has clearly not deterred his resolve for a referendum.

A joint session of the National Security Council and the Federal Cabinet chaired by Gen. Musharraf today unanimously approved holding of a national referendum on ``important national issues''. The President would address the nation on Friday to spell out details of the referendum. It could be held in early May.

The meeting was attended by the Service chiefs, Vice Chief of the Army Staff and the Provincial Governors besides members of the Cabinet. Gen. Musharraf appointed himself as the President days before the Agra Summit in July last after the then President, Rafiq Tarar, `ceased' to be President. The legal argument was that with the dissolution of the National and Provincial Assemblies, which constitutes the electoral college for election of President, Mr. Tarar cannot continue in office.

Though the official statement is silent on whether continuation of Gen. Musharraf as President would be one of the issues to be framed as part of the wording of the referendum, it is more than evident from pointers in the last few days. There has been a spate of statements by influential functionaries in the Musharraf government in the last few days. In his interview to The Hindu last Thursday Gen. Musharraf had said that he would decide on the subject in a week or two. Most of the mainstream and religious parties, barring the MQM, have questioned the proposal for referendum and termed it as illegal and unconstitutional. The Jamaat-e-Islami has, in fact, filed a petition in the Supreme Court questioning the ascendancy of Gen. Musharraf to the post of President.

Besides seeking the `approval' of people on continuation of Gen. Musharraf for a further term of five years, the referendum is expected to ask mandate on the package of `political and economic' measures undertaken and proposed by his regime. Gen. Musharraf has been persistently talking of introduction of a system under which the future governments could not reverse the reform process.

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