Pakistan politician sees Musharraf exit in Sept
Originally published in Gulf Times on August 13, 2008
PAKISTAN President Pervez Musharraf will have left office by next month, according to a senior member of the ruling five-party coalition, led by Pakistan Peoples Party.
Speaking exclusively to Gulf Times, Munir Khan Orakzai, the parliamentary leader of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, emphasised that the process of the proposed impeachment would be successful resulting in the removal of Musharraf in three to four weeks.
“The coalition has decided to bring the impeachment motion against him by or on August 20. The president will have to respond in not less than seven days or later than 14 days,” Orakzai said yesterday.
According to him, the coalition parties agreed after the three-day marathon talks last week, to get rid of Musharraf “once and for all” so the government can finally function.
The plan is to get the four provincial assemblies to pass a no-confidence motion against the president, as they make up his Electoral College and send a message of disapproval to him in the process. After that a “charge-sheet” will be brought forward in the parliament that includes the National Assembly (Lower House) and Senate (Upper House).
On Monday, the Punjab Assembly adopted with an overwhelming majority (321 for and 25 against) a resolution asking the president to either obtain a vote of confidence or resign.
Orakzai … “Musharraf is buying time”
In the NWFP 107 voted in favour and only four against the motion yesterday.
The 168-seat Sindh Assembly and 65-seat Balochistan Assembly vote today and on Friday, respectively.
“The coalition has also decided that this current session of parliament that has been called solely for impeachment purposes will go on non-stop until this issue is completely dealt with,” Orakzai, who along with the Pakistan Peoples Party’s Asif Zardari, Muslim League (N)‘s Nawaz Sharif, Awami National Party’s Asfandyar Khan and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam’s Fazlurahman, makes up the five-party coalition now ruling Pakistan.
General Pervez Musharraf came to power in a bloodless coup in 1999, overthrowing the government of then prime minister Nawaz Sharif. Post 9/11, he became extremely relevant to the US, which so far has offered his country $11bn in “fighting the war against terrorism” as a front-line ally.
Musharraf’s critics say that the popularity of the former commando - who single-handedly ruled the country for close to a decade - started nose-diving after he had repeatedly ignored his promises of shedding the military uniform.
They blame him for initiating an “unnecessary” operation in Balochistan, “dismissing” popular judges, imposing emergency in November and for blacking out the media.
“Now his close aide is telling me that he wants to stay until November. He is simply buying time with this. It is a trait common in all dictators,” Orakzai said.
“But what guarantee the president is willing to stay around? Is he so naive as to not understand that he is neither a Nelson Mandela nor a Mahathir Mohamed? In that case we wouldn’t mind him for 40 years as president,” he added.
“This won’t work for him. All the coalition parties are together in this. Even some of the opposition parties have refused to bail out their former patron. He must go either by resigning or through impeachment.”
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As Published
