Pakistan’s ruling party has said it is determined to curtail the powers of the presidency in favor of parliament, whether Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf likes it or not.
Staunch US ally Musharraf, facing a chorus of calls to resign, told journalists on Saturday, in his first meeting with the media for weeks, that he had no plan to quit.
At the same time, Musharraf sounded a generally conciliatory tone saying parliament, dominated by opponents since his allies were defeated in a February election, was supreme.
Musharraf’s fate has consumed the attention of the new coalition since the polls, despite an economy that is deteriorating rapidly and a potent threat from al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
Pakistan’s stock market and currency have both come under pressure because of a combination of factors, including the uncertainty over Musharraf and worry about more turmoil in the nuclear-armed country.
In the meeting with journalists on Saturday, Musharraf said he would accept proposed constitutional amendments that the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) of assassinated opposition leader Benazir Bhutto aimed to push through parliament.
But in what media interpreted as a warning he would not tolerate a cut in his powers, a confident-sounding Musharraf indicated he would not like to be reduced to a ceremonial head of state, saying he could not become a “useless vegetable.”
Musharraf said he would prefer to retire if the new government reduced his presidential role to a ceremonial one.
“Parliament is supreme. Whatever the parliament decides I will accept it,” Musharraf said.
“If I see that I don’t have any role to play, then it is better to play golf,” the president said. “I cannot become a useless vegetable.”
Musharraf also suggested he would step aside if political turmoil were to engulf the country.
“I cannot preside over the downfall of Pakistan,” he said.
“Such hollow warnings would not deter the democratic forces from restoring the powers of the parliament,” PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar said in a statement.
Bhutto’s widower Asif Ali Zardari, who leads the PPP, has called Musharraf a “relic of the past” and says the PPP does not recognize him as a constitutional president.
Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, whom former army chief Musharraf overthrew in a 1999 coup and who leads the second-largest party in parliament, wants Musharraf impeached or tried for treason.
A lawyers’ movement that sprang up last year to fight Musharraf’s attempts to dictate to the judiciary will seek to hasten his departure with a protest campaign this week.
Asked how would he react if the government tried to impeach him, Musharraf said: “I will abide by whatever parliament decides. Let the parliament decide in a constitutional way.”
Musharraf is believed to be seeking immunity for suspending the Constitution and imposing emergency rule for six weeks in November. The PPP leadership, wary of a destabilizing confrontation, is trying to make his exit “dignified,” an adviser to Zardari said.
Despite Musharraf’s public stance, political insiders say he recognizes that he will have to quit rather than be the cause of more upheaval and it has become a matter of timing.
But the Dawn newspaper said yesterday Musharraf appeared confident, perhaps because he had been assured he did not have to worry about impeachment: “He does not seem under pressure to go away in a hurry.”
Another prominent newspaper, the News, said by ruling out resigning, Musharraf had thrown the ball back into the court of his political opponents.
“In a sense, the retired general is throwing a gauntlet to the politicians,” the News said. “By stalling his departure and by forcing the political system to unnecessarily spend its energies on now trying and impeaching him, he is directly prolonging the uncertainty.”
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
Two former Chilean ministers are among four candidates competing this weekend for the presidential nomination of the left ahead of November elections dominated by rising levels of violent crime. More than 15 million voters are eligible to choose today between former minister of labor Jeannette Jara, former minister of the interior Carolina Toha and two members of parliament, Gonzalo Winter and Jaime Mulet, to represent the left against a resurgent right. The primary is open to members of the parties within Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s ruling left-wing coalition and other voters who are not affiliated with specific parties. A recent poll by the
TENSIONS HIGH: For more than half a year, students have organized protests around the country, while the Serbian presaident said they are part of a foreign plot About 140,000 protesters rallied in Belgrade, the largest turnout over the past few months, as student-led demonstrations mount pressure on the populist government to call early elections. The rally was one of the largest in more than half a year student-led actions, which began in November last year after the roof of a train station collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people — a tragedy widely blamed on entrenched corruption. On Saturday, a sea of protesters filled Belgrade’s largest square and poured into several surrounding streets. The independent protest monitor Archive of Public Gatherings estimated the
Irish-language rap group Kneecap on Saturday gave an impassioned performance for tens of thousands of fans at the Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by British politicians and a terror charge for one of the trio. Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged under the UK’s Terrorism Act with supporting a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November last year. The rapper, who was charged under the anglicized version of his name, Liam O’Hanna, is on unconditional bail before a further court hearing in August. “Glastonbury,
RSS