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Anti-Musharraf forces get their act together

Moin91

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By Tariq Butt

ISLAMABAD: All the anti-Musharraf political forces and lawyers have teamed up to block the president’s re-election on October 6.

Even the would-be, could-be “friendly opposition” – Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) – doesn’t want to lag behind others in protesting against Musharraf’s re-election in uniform – again, of course, with the hope that the presidential aides would rush to it to save the developing relationship from being totally undermined. The anti-Musharraf forces gained somewhat confidence after the president’s principal lawyer Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada vaguely committed in writing to the Supreme Court that if re-elected, the top man would hang up his military outfit and before his swearing-in as the head of the state for another five years.

The PPP has started slowly shifting towards the bandwagon that has declared that it would quit the assemblies to protest against Musharraf’s re-election. The PPP leaders are now repeating that the president’s re-election in uniform is absolutely not acceptable. But it continues to expect last-minute concessions from Musharraf so that it does not have to walk out of the assemblies.

No doubt, the PPP MPs’ exit will pile up the resignations and add to the strength of the forces opposing Musharraf. But, the presidential camp is hopeful that it would be able to prevent the PPP from joining the anti-Musharraf elements.

The forces pitched up against the president aren’t apparently prepared to accept anything short of Musharraf’s knockout from the presidential race. They are using all tricks in their bag to achieve this end.

Muttahidda Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) President Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Tehrik-e-Insaf’s Imran Khan, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and smaller components of the All Parties Democratic Movement (APMD) are quite clear on resigning from the assemblies.

However, Maulana Fazlur Rehman is still to finalise his position on the issue of resignation. The government hopes that it would ultimately prevail upon Maulana Fazl and he would not stand with the “destroyers” of the system.

While a major section of the lawyers’ community and those determined to scuttle the president’s re-election are using all their resources to achieve their objective, they continue to pin high hopes on the nine-member Supreme Court bench that is seized with hearing half-a-dozen petitions against Musharraf’s dual offices.

While the nine honourable judges of the apex court are in the middle of the hearing, a guessing game is on about the prospective ruling on one of the most crucial issues. In this context, the ruling PML President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain’s statement that everybody should accept the apex court’s judgment is noteworthy, keeping in view the official expectation.

The government has already begun working on two fronts. It is engaged in weaning away Maulana Fazl from the opponents of the president. On the other hand, it is trying to neutralise the PPP so that it remains favourable to Musharraf.

However, if the PPP finally sided with those saying goodbye to the assemblies, the government’s attitude on Ms Bhutto’s planned homecoming on October 18, ending her over eight-year exile, would be radically different than what she had expected while giving the return date.


Anti-Musharraf forces get their act together
 
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