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Musharraf Is Still Focus in Pakistan

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Musharraf Is Still Focus in Pakistan

Johan Spanner for The New York Times

By CARLOTTA GALL

Published: March 5, 2008

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The parties that won Pakistan’s elections say they will select a prime minister any day now, but that is not expected to calm the country’s turbulent politics, as the next government refocuses opposition to President Pervez Musharraf.

Energized by their victory two weeks ago, members of the incoming Parliament are questioning with new vigor Mr. Musharraf’s continuation in office.

The election has also revitalized the lawyers’ movement that formed to oppose Mr. Musharraf nearly a year ago. It is re-emerging as a political force with the release of its leaders from house arrest last weekend.

The election results for all but 10 National Assembly seats have been confirmed, and the winning party of the assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, the Pakistan Peoples Party, will lead the government.

Makhdoom Amin Fahim, the longtime deputy to Ms. Bhutto and the party’s longest-serving member of Parliament, will probably be chosen as the prime minister, according to members of the party. Then it will depend on Mr. Musharraf to decide when to call the first session of the new Parliament.

The president may not be comfortable with what he sees coming. Even though the Pakistan Peoples Party and its partners have said Mr. Musharraf’s removal is not their first concern, opposition to him remains the underlying theme of politics here.

“That is why the country is not settled,” said Senator Raja Zafar-ul-Haq, the chairman of the Pakistan Muslim League-N. “There are indications the presidency is trying to create hitches between those forming the government.”

The Pakistan Peoples Party is holding together an agreement for a coalition with the Pakistan Muslim League-N of the former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, which came in a powerful second; and a smaller Pashtun nationalist party from the North-West Frontier Province, the Awami National Party.

Mr. Sharif’s party is still so virulent in its opposition to Mr. Musharraf that it will probably not participate in the cabinet because of its aversion to serving under him. It has agreed, however, on a minimum common agenda and will support the government, Mr. Zafar-ul-Haq said.

Topping the new government’s agenda will be rising food prices, the threat of terrorism, tensions between Pakistan’s various ethnic groups, and, not least, what to do about the judges dismissed by Mr. Musharraf under his Nov. 3 emergency decree, when he was still the army chief. He relinquished that title in November and is now a civilian president.

Aitzaz Ahsan, the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, was released Sunday from four months’ of detention and immediately announced he was filing a lawsuit against all those responsible for the “unlawful” detention of himself and other lawyers and judges.

“I demand all 63 judges be reinstated,” was his opening salvo before the news media, adding that he planned to sue for billions of rupees.

The lawyers have already resumed their campaign at the barricades in front of the house of the deposed chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who has been the focal point of the opposition to Mr. Musharraf for the last year.

On Monday, almost a year after Mr. Chaudhry’s first suspension on March 9, 2007, television viewers once more watched a group of black-suited lawyers running through the white smoke, lobbing tear gas canisters back at the blue-uniformed police.

Mr. Chaudhry remains under house arrest in the capital, Islamabad, along with several other judges and their families, and is adamant, according to close associates, that he was removed unconstitutionally and should be returned to his job. He has the support of many in the new government coalition, as well as the lawyers’ movement of Mr. Ahsan.

The Pakistan Peoples Party and Mr. Sharif’s party have formed a legal committee to work out how to handle the restoration of the judiciary, which they have pledged to do, even while they differ on what to do about the chief justice.

Most of the opposition lawyers contend that the removal of the chief justice by an executive order by an army chief is unconstitutional and can be undone by a similar order of the cabinet. The Parliament could then reinforce that order with a vote, they said.

“I think the sentiment would be against him,” Mr. Zafar-ul-Haq said of Mr. Musharraf.

Mr. Musharraf, much weakened since removing his uniform and since his political party sustained a resounding defeat at the polls, nevertheless retains one powerful weapon. Under controversial constitutional amendments, he has the power to dissolve Parliament and dismiss the government. He also has the right to appoint and remove the top officials of the armed forces.

That threat has led seasoned politicians to call for caution. “We would not like to rock the boat,” said Senator Enver Baig from the Pakistan Peoples Party. “We would like democracy to take its roots.” But he added that Mr. Musharraf would have to abide by the new situation in which he did not have a compliant Parliament and government. “Mr. Musharraf should understand the limits of the presidency,” he said.

Mr. Musharraf’s party is showing signs of collapse. A group of six senators from the former government coalition has already said it would break ranks with the party and vote according to conscience on coming motions.

Even a loyal lieutenant like Mushahid Hussain, the general secretary of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, the faction formed by Mr. Musharraf five years ago to give him support in Parliament, has said he will vote to curtail the president’s powers to dissolve Parliament.

A vote to impeach the president is still unlikely, but aides to the president have said they think Mr. Musharraf will resign if the chief justice returns to his post, because that would reopen the question of his eligibility to be president and the legality of his suspension of the Constitution in November.

The same would happen if lawmakers removed his powers to dissolve Parliament, a close aide said. “The president will resign,” the aide said. “He does not want to be an ineffective president.”

A Western diplomat who did not want to be identified, following protocol, said: “He is considering whether he should go. My feeling is Musharraf would not accept a diminished role; either he is in power, or he leaves.”

Yet Mr. Musharraf, who says he will work with whatever government is formed, remains aggressive publicly and seems determined to remain at the helm. He continues to occupy the Army House, the government residence of the chief of army staff, in the garrison city of Rawalpindi just to the south of the capital, and continues to meet the cabinet, party officials and military officers there.

“He is under pressure, but I don’t think he is going to improve,” Mr. Zafar-ul-Haq said. “The expressions from him are such. He is adamant, stubborn.”
 
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It would be however better for the country if the all the political parties instead of following their personal agenda and enemity towards musharraf, should rather focus on what the real problem pakistan is facing. Terrorism threat, shortage of gas & electricity and food prices should be the area of main concern of all the political parties rather being coming to eachothers throat.
 
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I hope all this crap stops and people focus on the needs of the country and the people as opposed to their own personal agendas.

The elections are water under the bridge now so focus on the future and the common good.
 
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I hope all this crap stops and people focus on the needs of the country and the people as opposed to their own personal agendas.

The elections are water under the bridge now so focus on the future and the common good.

welcome to the world of politics - take the money and run will be next
 
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welcome to the world of politics - take the money and run will be next

u should be saying "welcome to the world of PML-N and PPP, dirty politics in self-interest is their characteristic only.
 
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