KARACHI, 29 January — President Gen. Pervez Musharraf is still undecided whether to hold a referendum for a new five-year term in office.
Sources in the government, however, said that if at all a referendum is held, the blueprint for that will be revealed by August or September.
Musharraf has expressed a desire to remain in office for the full five years, after Oct. 12, when general elections are due under orders of the supreme court. Officials, however insist that Musharraf will continue to hold the office of the chief executive and the army chief of staff.
Gen. Ziaul Haq had set that pattern, and had remained army chief for 11 years till his death. An official, however, said, for the present, the president in concentrating all his energies on holding the national elections, for which certain ground rules have already been announced.
Meanwhile, a breakaway faction of the Muslim League party, calling itself as the like-minded group, has supported Musharraf’s plan to remain in office till October 2007.
“The elections will be yet another feather in the cap of President Musharraf. The Muslim League (QA) will accept him in office, said the party’s chief Mian Azhar, who has suddenly emerged as the government’s favorite for the prime minister’s post.
The Peoples Party and the PML(N) however have opposed the move as being unconstitutional. The president has no such authority to declare himself as the head of state.
This can only be done through a process, and by the majority party in the National Assembly for which elections are yet to be held.
The question of electing a new president for the country, could only be raised once the parliament is inducted, said a spokesman of the party’s faction headed by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Veteran politician Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, heading a multiparty ARD alliance, also sought to know from the president that which part of the constitution allowed for a referendum to elect a president.
And the secretary-general of the PML(N) Khawaja Saad Rafiq suggested that if Musharraf was so keen to as to continue in politics, he should hand his uniform, and enter politics formally.
