KARACHI, 14 December — The Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) has announced to take part in elections even without its leader, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, now exiled to Saudi Arabia. The announcement came soon after reports began to pour in that the military regime plans to retain with it the post of the president for an unspecified time, and was planning to introduce some far-reaching amendments in the country’s constitution.
One of the presidential aides, Gen. Tanvir Naqvi, heading the research reconstruction cell, made it absolutely plain on Wednesday night that Musharraf “will remain” the president of the country even after elections. He has engaged two eminent personalities, Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada, and perhaps Yusuf Haroon also, to help introduce the system of proportional representation in the constitution. Whether the entire electoral system will be changed, or the system of proportional representation will be introduced for selective seats of parliament, had not been spelled out.
Naqvi, appearing in a television interview remained evasive on the subject. He confined himself to saying that “the plan will be announced when it is ready. For the time being work on it is on.”
Former minister Raja Zafarul Haq implied during a visit to Karachi yesterday that his party did not wish to leave the field open to the military to manipulate the polls. The PML will therefore contest the elections even without Sharif. But the situation with the Pakistan People’s Party is different. Its leader, former senator and minister Reza Rabbani stressed that the party will continue to press for the return home of its leader Benazir Bhutto.
Meanwhile, the political careers of Benazir and Sharif as well as of those of the religious parties have come to an end, former Foreign Minister Gohar Ayub has claimed.
“Sharif and Bhutto will be unable to contest the next elections and the newly-elected parliament will agree to retain Gen. Pervez Musharraf as president of Pakistan as part of a package of constitutional amendments,” the secretary-general of the PML (Quaid-e-Azam) said in an interview.
Musharraf will continue as the legal president of the country after elections in October next year, he added. Gohar, who is also a former speaker of the National Assembly, said that no political party would gain two-thirds majority in the next elections. He said the religious parties could not succeed in polls, as they cannot obtain more than eight to ten thousand votes in any constituency.
