Saturday, May 31, 2003
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By B. Muralidhar Reddy
The extent of the stand-off between the Government and the Opposition could be gauged from the fact that the later had threatened to block the presentation of budget, tentatively scheduled on June 7, on the issue of the dual role of the President, Pervez Musharraf. As of now there is no meeting point between the Government and the Opposition on the continuation of Gen. Musharraf as Army Chief and political observers are worried that it could lead to a showdown with unpredictable consequences. At least one senior leader of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), alliance of six religious parties, has gone on record that they could not care less even if the crisis led to the suspension or dissolution of the National Assembly. The gathering clouds were evident again in Lahore as the leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly, Qasim Zia, and dozens of Assembly members were arrested before the Punjab Assembly building. In an unprecedented action on Tuesday, the Assembly Speaker had suspended 27 Opposition members and debarred them from taking part in the proceedings in the rest of the session as they rose to register their protest against Musharraf laws and the continuation of Gen. Musharraf as Army Chief. Observers see the events as a curtain-raiser to what could follow at the national level in the coming days. The Prime Minister, Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, is scheduled to have a `summit' with leaders of all parties in Parliament in the next few days to persuade them to give some more time to Gen. Musharraf to shed his uniform.
Unenviable position
Mr. Jamali is placed in an unenviable position with neither Gen. Musharraf nor the Opposition in a mood to relent. A few days ago, Gen. Musharraf had said that while he was conscious of the fact that the President should not be an army officer, his continuation as Army Chief for some more time was imperative in the `larger national interest'. He said the timeframe as to when he should quit as Army Chief should be left to himself. The oddity of the situation could be seen from the simple fact that though the general elections were held in the second week of October last year, the National Assembly has not had a single `normal' session till date. It had to be adjourned amid uproarious scenes several times. In an informal talk with correspondents here, all that Mr. Jamali could say was it was the responsibility of all political parties to ensure the smooth functioning of Parliament. Interestingly, he said his Government did not provide the `uniform' to Gen. Musharraf. It has been reported in a section of the press that Gen. Musharraf chose to postpone his scheduled visit to Saudi Arabia in the last minute to deal with any contingency at home.
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