English
Bid to stop Zardari becoming president
ASIF Ali Zardari, the controversial widower of Benazir Bhutto, became the frontrunner to replace Pervez Musharraf as Pakistan’s president at the weekend when he was nominated to run in a poll scheduled for next month.
But almost immediately attempts were under way to thwart his ambition as it emerged that he was poised to assume powers greater than those held by Pervez Musharraf during his tenure as military dictator.
Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who heads the junior partner in the coalition, demanded yesterday that the dominant Pakistan People’s Party agree to slash the president’s powers before he would support its candidate.
Among the powers set to be held will be chairmanship of the National Security Council, which controls the country’s nuclear arsenal. Nominations close tomorrow ahead of the election on September 6.
The Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), with which Mr Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) is nominally in coalition, is seeking a “principled and highly regarded” candidate to run against the man widely derided in the past as “Mr 10 Per Cent” and who was jailed for 11 years over unproved corruption charges.
The PML (N) move followed Mr Zardari’s weekend announcement that he would seek the presidency, and expectations that the fragile coalition would collapse today, the latest deadline set by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif for the reinstatement of chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and other judges sacked by Mr Musharraf.
Last night, PPP officials dared Mr Sharif to “do what he likes … we don’t care”, as one party insider put it to The Australian.
Mr Sharif is angry over Mr Zardari’s repeated breaking of promises made over the restoration of the judges. It emerged yesterday that when the latest promise was made and broken in Islamabad in August 5 - that the judges would be reinstated within 24 hours of Mr Musharraf leaving office - a copy of the Koran was produced to sanctify the written agreement.
“Let’s take an oath on the Koran this time that I will fulfil all my promises,” Mr Zardari is reported to have said to Mr Sharif.
Mr Sharif is said to have responded to the PPP leader: “I don’t want to swear on the Holy Koran for political objectives but I would expect that all promises would be fulfilled.”
Mr Musharraf resigned last Monday and as of yesterday the judges had not been restored.
Mr Zardari, asked yesterday about the promise, is reported to have said: “Political parties do not make promises, they only arrive at understandings.” There was little optimism in Islamabad of the judges being restored in the near future, thus leaving Mr Sharif with little alternative but to pull out of the coalition.
Mr Zardari does not want Mr Chaudhry restored because he regards him as a “loose cannon” who might overturn an amnesty granted by Mr Musharraf last year to the PPP leader and his late wife, Benazir Bhutto, over corruption charges from 1996.
Assuming he wins the presidency, analysts say Mr Zardari is destined to become the most powerful ruler in recent Pakistan history. In addition to becoming chairman of the National Security Council, which control’s the country’s nuclear arsenal, he will also have authority to appoint whoever he likes to command the armed forces as well as all provincial governors.
He will also be able to pick the chief electoral commissioner, chief justice and attorney-general, as well as dissolve the national and provincial parliaments.
The PPP has a commanding lead in the electoral college, which is made up of all members of the national and provincial parliaments. It will name the president on September 6. Subscribe=>
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