ISLAMABAD, 4 April — Pakistan’s Cabinet yesterday approved President Pervez Musharraf’s plan to hold a referendum on whether he should stay on as president, official sources said.
An official statement said a joint session of the National Security Council (NSC), made up of the military chiefs and the federal Cabinet, “unanimously approved” the referendum to decide “important national issues”. It said Musharraf would address the nation tomorrow to “take the people into confidence on the details of the referendum”.
The president, who is also armed forces chief, is expected to formally announce a date for the referendum tomorrow, with an aide saying it was likely to be held in early May — well ahead of elections scheduled for October.
“He wants to be elected through the vote of the people of Pakistan and he is ready to take all the risks,” said the aide.
Musharraf seized power in a bloodless coup in October 1999 and named himself president in June last year.
He briefed newspaper editors Saturday on his plan to let the people decide if his title should be extended for five years, despite a clause in the constitution which states that the president must be elected by Parliament and provincial assemblies.
“I want to know whether or not the nation requires me,” Musharraf was reported as telling the editors.
No date for the balloting has been set, but the Election Commission has said the referendum should take place one month from the date of announcement of the decision. The referendum has been condemned by opposition and religious parties on the grounds that it is unconstitutional and likely to guarantee the military’s supremacy over parliament.
The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) led by exiled former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who is barred from contesting October’s elections due to corruption allegations, has called the plan “constitutionally wrong and morally perverse”.
“We have rejected it earlier and we reject it now. We will wait to see what he says in his speech on Friday about this illegal and unconstitutional exercise,” said PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar.
“The stricture of illegitimacy is haunting Musharraf. It will continue to haunt him even after the sham referendum.”
It has also provoked a backlash from the main religious parties, which Tuesday vowed to boycott the vote.
“The presidential referendum is an unconstitutional move, we reject it unanimously,” said religious leader Shah Ahmad Noorani.
“We will not accept him as president if he is elected through this exercise.”
Meanwhile, Qazi Hussain Ahmad, the head of the leading fundamentalist Jamaat-i-Islami party, filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the move.
His lawyer, Farooq Hassan, told reporters that while the Supreme Court had legitimized Musharraf’s power grab, it also bound him to holding elections by October and did not empower him to hold a referendum. Musharraf argues that he needs more time to complete the political and economic reforms he launched after the 1999 coup, which he says are designed to create a “genuine democracy” following years of rampant corruption.
He also claims the current generation of political leaders cannot be trusted to rule Pakistan by themselves.
