ISLAMABAD, 27 June — To strengthen presidency and weaken the premiership in Pakistan, President Pervez Musharraf yesterday proposed certain amendments in the constitution.
Under the constitution, the prime minister has a stronger hand, but Musharraf, who toppled Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a bloodless coup in 1999 and declared himself president last year, is seeking to reverse this.
The current constitution binds the president to act on the prime minister’s advice in matters such as dissolving Parliament and appointing provincial governors.
Under the proposed amendments, unveiled just weeks before elections to restore a civilian prime minister, the president will have the power to do this himself and sack the prime minister and his Cabinet at his discretion. Musharraf also seeks the power to name the future prime minister from among elected deputies. Political sources said Musharraf was most likely to amend the law by decree before the promised October election, using powers given him by a Supreme Court ruling that validated his coup.
A package of proposed constitutional amendments, which also cut the prime minister’s and lower house of Parliament’s terms to four years from five, was issued after a Cabinet meeting.
A government spokesman said the Cabinet and the policy-making military-civilian National Security Council (NSC) which Musharraf heads would finalize the package after a month-long public debate.
“These are proposals, please treat them as such,” said government spokesman Anwar Mahmood. Musharraf, who won a new five-year term as president through a referendum on April 30, says he will hand over to a civilian prime minister in October but retain a powerful presidency as well as the office of the chief of army staff. Sources said the package is unlikely to find favor with opposition parties which want Musharraf to hand over to a neutral interim government which should oversee the elections. The amendments also envision a permanent 10-member NSC headed by the president and including armed forces chiefs for consultations on strategic matters, dissolving cabinets or assemblies and proclaiming a state of emergency.
“The objective of the proposals... is to prevent excessive concentration of authority, create a domain of state responsibility... provide checks against precipitate or autocratic use of authority,” a government document said. Last month, two main political alliances, which include former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party and Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League, rejected Musharraf’s invitation for a meeting to consult them on how to tackle a military standoff with nuclear rival India.
They said they would not meet him unless the agenda included their main demand that he step down. Another proposed amendment provides for a direct election of a 100-seat Senate (upper house) through a system of proportional representation, to replace provincial assemblies.
