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| India-Pakistan |
| President Ten Percent to give up powers within weeks |
| 2009-12-02 |
| [The News (Pak) Top Stories] President Asif Zardari has finally made up his mind to become a titular head, or in common parlance a Rafiq Tarar, by also relinquishing even the most vital discretionary power to appoint services chiefs and the joint chiefs of staff committee chairman, his close aides say. Federal ministers, who frequently interact with him, say the president has left no doubt in discussions with us that he is ready to give up the discretionary authority to nominate services chiefs and dissolve the National Assembly and dismiss the government under Article 58(2)b of the Constitution in favour of the prime minister.One federal minister told The News on condition of anonymity that Zardari was now saying that Yousuf Raza Gilani "is my and the PPP prime minister and if he has all these powers, my party and I would be empowered". The scrapping of the 17th amendment is now a matter of weeks not months, according to the president's mind." These views of the president are in sharp contradiction to his actions in the past 20 months which has led to a massive uproar and his political position has weakened tremendously, analysts say. The minister has no doubt to believe that the next chief of the Army staff would be appointed by the prime minister, not the president in his discretion, as this power would certainly be transferred to the premier much before the time of the key nomination. Another minister said the only hitch is the agreement of the Awami National Party (ANP) to support the undoing of the 17th amendment and restoration of the original 1973 Constitution that, too, would be forthcoming if its demand to rename the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) as Pakhtoonkhwa was translated into reality. "The president is in full unison with the ANP to rename the NWFP as Pakhtoonkhwa as the NWFP assembly has unanimously passed a resolution to the effect," the minister said. Only the PML-N, he said, doesn't agree to the new name, therefore, it should talk to the ANP to hammer out an agreement on some consensus nomenclature of the NWFP. He said it was not the present government but the previous regime that had made the president head of the national command authority. Now, he said, its chairmanship has been moved to the prime minister from the president. About the implementation of the Charter of Democracy (CoD), the minister said the president would accept its almost every provision but not the one relating to the establishment of a federal constitutional court because it would curtail the powers of the Supreme Court. Anybody insisting on the enforcement of this clause, he said, wants the government to be at war with the apex court. "So far, our actions speak that we have not resorted to any step that leads to confrontation with the Supreme Court in any way," he said. Apart from the PPP, the minister said, the PML-Q is also opposed to the creation of the constitutional court. Clause 4 of the CoD, if implemented, will split the present powers of the Supreme Court as the constitutional court will be set up to resolve constitutional issues, giving equal representation to each of the federating units, whose members may be judges or persons qualified to be judges of the apex court. It will be constituted for a six-year tenure. Its members will be appointed in the same manner as judges of the superior judiciary. Yet another minister said the president has noted with satisfaction the change in the tone and tenor of opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, which augured well for the democratic dispensation. However, he said there were a few hawks in the PML-N, who wanted to keep the government under tremendous attack, finally leading it to collapse. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 bottom line IIUC - the return to the earlier constitution means less power for Zardari, but leaves PPP in control, with support from PMLQ. PMLN and Sharif unable to take power, as yet. The NWFP name thing is odd, and perhaps deserves its own thread |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2009-12-02 12:14 |