ISLAMABAD, 23 October 2004 — The head of the Commonwealth yesterday said the issue of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s military post should be resolved through Parliament with democratic means.

Don McKinnon, Secretary General of the group of mostly former British colonies, said Musharraf had taken the issue to Parliament and it was up to the legislature to make a decision.

“The important thing is that the issue is taken to the Parliament and the Parliament debated that issue,” he told reporters after a meeting with Musharraf.

The National Assembly, Parliament’s lower house, last week passed a bill to allow Musharraf to stay on as army chief beyond 2004 despite a pledge to give up the job by the end of the year.

Last December, he announced his decision to give up his uniform, saying it was in the interests of democracy in a country that has been ruled by the military for more than half its 57-year history.

But he has since dropped strong hints that he will not abide by the commitment, saying shedding his uniform would undermine his authority in the war on terror and in pushing forward a nascent peace process with rival India.

The Commonwealth suspended Pakistan’s membership after Musharraf’s bloodless coup in 1999, but readmitted the country in May, citing its progress on democratic reforms.

At the time of its readmission, the Commonwealth said it would monitor further reforms and expected Musharraf to meet his pledge to stand down as army chief by the end of the year.

McKinnon said he raised the uniform issue with Musharraf during the meeting and told him that the Commonwealth wanted “some clarity”.

However, he said, the group also underlined the need for maintaining “supremacy of the Parliament and the constitution”.

“I am here to talk about more than just so-called democratic issues. I am here to really ensure that the engagements for Pakistan, between the Commonwealth and Pakistan, between Commonwealth countries and Pakistan reaches once again its full breadth and depth,” McKinnon said.

Parliament passed a bill on Oct. 14 that allows Musharraf to remain the army chief and the president until 2007.

McKinnon said the bill “is an issue that is certainly attracting a lot of attention.”

But, he said the Commonwealth ministers had not had a chance to meet since the bill was passed. He praised Musharraf for allowing the Parliament to debate the bill.

He said the issue of Musharraf’s uniform was “contentious,” but that it is the proper role of the legislature to debate the issues. “That is still democracy in action,” he said.

In May, McKinnon suggested that Musharraf must abide by his pledge to separate the offices of president and chief of army staff.

McKinnon is to travel to Singapore today, then travel to the Maldives on Oct. 26 and India on Oct. 28, where he is to hold talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other officials.

McKinnon’s trip came on the same day that opposition parties moved for a vote of no-confidence in National Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Ameer Hussain, charging that he had not given them enough time to debate the bill that cleared Musharraf’s path. The vote was blocked by Musharraf loyalists who dominate the legislature.

Opposition members of the National Assembly shouted slogans as Deputy Speaker Sardar Yaqoob, chairing the special session, invited Hussain to defend himself after he had allowed three main opposition leaders to speak on the motion.

“Go Speaker Go,” the members chanted in front of the deputy speakers’ rostrum as they demanded more time for other opposition members to debate the issue.

Yaqoob ruled out the motion after the opposition members refused to take part in the balloting.

“As there is no vote in favor of the no-trust motion, it stands negated,” he announced before adjourning the session until next week.

Enraged opposition members also tore up copies of “House Business Rules” and the balloting papers.

The opposition needed 172 votes in the 342-member house to depose the speaker.

The motion against the speaker had been moved last week after the opposition accused Hussain of “by-passing” parliamentary traditions and allowing a hasty passage of the bill.

The Islamic alliance of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), with whom the government remained engaged over a year on the same issue, also joined the other mainstream opposition parties to protest the possible retention of two offices by the president.

Musharraf has so far made no categorical statement on his pledge he made last year to relinquish his army chief post by Dec. 31, following a deal with MMA on a set of constitutional amendments, also called the Legal Framework Order (LFO).

Passed under the 17th amendment, the LFO granted sweeping powers to him and rendered the elected government and Parliament secondary.