ISLAMABAD, 8 March 2008 — President Pervez Musharraf said yesterday that he would call the newly elected National Assembly into session in a week or two and the coalition government would get his full support.
Addressing officials here at the opening of a 1.25-billion-rupee water supply scheme, the president said it was vital for political parties to focus their efforts on the formation of a stable government for the next five years. “I will fully support the new government,” Musharraf pledged.
He said it was a positive development that the people elected moderates and rejected extremists, particularly in the North West Frontier Province.
“Now we must concentrate on sustaining the economic growth and continue the fight against extremism and terrorism,” the president said.
Musharraf said there was need for strong governments both at the federal and provincial levels for the next five years to achieve that objective.
He said that despite fears of widespread vote rigging expressed by mainstream politicians, the world has acknowledged that the Feb. 18 elections were free, fair, transparent and peaceful. The people should now hold those who leveled the baseless allegations accountable.
The president said he supported an independent and free media, but it must play a responsible role and continue to report objectively.
Musharraf’s handpicked army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, told a meeting of top army commanders on Thursday that the military would support the next government. The army “fully stands behind the democratic process and is committed to play its constitutional role in support of the elected government,” a military statement quoted him as saying. Kayani said the army would “stay out of the political process.”
The Election Commission said yesterday that parties opposed to Musharraf have won the allegiance of 11 lawmakers who contested last month’s elections as independents, tightening their hold on the new Parliament,.
Seven independents have joined the party of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, while four have lined up with Nawaz Sharif, another ex-premier, according to a breakdown provided by the commission. No lawmakers have joined pro-Musharraf parties.
The parties of Benazir and Sharif trounced the former ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q party in the parliamentary elections after eight years of military rule.
The Election Commission said 18 parliamentarians will remain independent after Thursday’s deadline to sign up for a party. The cutoff also triggered the allocation of additional seats reserved for women and non-Muslims.
Benazir’s Pakistan People’s Party now has 120 lawmakers in the 342-seat National Assembly, or lower house of Parliament, the commission said. The Pakistan Muslim league-N, led by Sharif, has 90, while the PML-Q has 51.
The two largest parties are expected to form a loose coalition government. They lack the two-thirds majority needed in both the upper and lower houses of Parliament to impeach Musharraf.
But they are threatening to drastically reduce his sweeping powers and perhaps reinstate judges ousted when he imposed emergency rule last year — moves which could prompt the former military strongman to quit.
On Thursday, the People’s Party deferred a decision on who to nominate for Pakistan’s next prime minister. It said Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari, Benazir’s widower, needed more time for consultations and would announce its pick within days. The Election Commission said 11 seats in the National Assembly remain vacant. The results in seven constituencies are in litigation, while voting in three places has been delayed by either security concerns or the death of a candidate — including Benazir, who was slain in a gun-and-bomb attack on Dec. 27.
One seat reserved for a woman will be decided by drawing lots because two parties — the PML-Q and an alliance of religious parties — have an equal claim on it.
— With input from agencies
