ISLAMABAD, 17 November 2002 — Military ruler Pervez Musharraf and Pakistan’s first Parliament in three years were sworn in yesterday, hours after Musharraf gave himself new sweeping powers to keep making laws and further amendments. “Gen. Pervez Musharraf has entered upon the office of the president of Pakistan under the constitution,” said a proclamation read out after his swearing-in ceremony at the presidential palace at 9:45 a.m. (0445 GMT).
Musharraf, dressed in a traditional civilian black robe known as “sherwani”, took oath for another five years in office, 37 months after seizing power in a military coup. He had first named himself president in June last year.
The oath was administered by Chief Justice Riaz Sheikh in a ceremony attended by ministers, ambassadors, military top brass and Musharraf’s wife and mother. Two hours later 334 members of the first Parliament since Musharraf’s 1999 coup were sworn in, breathing life back into the Parliament House which has sat empty on the capital’s edge for three years.
Turbaned and bearded MPs from the newly powerful Islamic parties, their female members covered in head-to-toe white veils with slits for their eyes, took their place alongside veteran MPs from secular opposition parties dressed in traditional long white tunics, trousers and waistcoats.
Former Parliament Speaker Elahi Bux Soomro administered the oath after overcoming protests by MPs from three main opposition parties, who declared they would not take the oath under the amended constitution. Soomro assured them the oath was exactly the same despite amendments to the body of the constitution, and the swearing-in went ahead.
After the session Islamic religious leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman, one of two candidates for prime minister, insisted that their oath was under the original constitution. “We have taken oath under the 1973 constitution as it was on Oct. 1999,” he told reporters outside the chamber.
A hung Parliament emerged from Oct. 10 polls and despite five weeks of intensive haggling the parties have still not declared a governing coalition. The pro-military parties claimed Friday to have mustered more than the 172-seat majority required to form government.
The 342-seat House, in which seven seats have to be vacated by MPs who won other seats while another seat is awaiting a by-election, is broadly divided between supporters and opponents of Musharraf and his amendments. (AFP)
