ISLAMABAD, 2 January 2004 — Gen. Pervez Musharraf yesterday won a vote of confidence from both houses of Parliament and Pakistan’s four provincial assemblies. This makes his rule constitutionally valid until late 2007.
The opposition walked out in protest and denounced the proceedings as a sham.
“He has won the vote of confidence,” said Information Minister Sheikh Rashid, adding that around 60 percent of the lawmakers had supported Musharraf.
The balloting followed a surprise deal last month with a coalition of hard-line Islamic parties that agreed to support Musharraf’s claim to the presidency in return for a promise that he step down as army chief by the end of 2004.
Musharraf has held both positions since winning a controversial presidential referendum in 2002 in which he was the only candidate. His term expires in 2007.
The Senate voted 56-1 and the National Assembly 191-0 to give Musharraf the vote of confidence he sought, but scores of opposition lawmakers staged a walkout in protest. The assemblies of the North West Frontier Province, Balochistan and Sindh all voted in favor of Musharraf, with large numbers of opposition legislators abstaining or walking out.
In the North West Frontier Province, for instance, Musharraf won by a vote of 30-0, with the rest of the members in the 124-seat assembly refusing to take part. Voting in Punjab was still in progress, but Musharraf was assured of victory as he only needed a majority of the cumulative votes in all four provincial assemblies.
Musharraf’s supporters have hailed the agreement as a sign of the general’s commitment to democratic rule, but opponents have derided it as window-dressing on his dictatorship.
Ahsan Iqbal, the chief coordinator of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League party of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif called yesterday’s proceedings a “mockery of democracy.”
“Musharraf has staged another drama to get his illegal presidency validated,” he said. “It is a total fraud. We don’t accept these results. We do not accept him as president.”
The country’s 1973 constitution was amended earlier this week to give the general extraordinary powers — including the right to dissolve Parliament and sack the prime minister by decree. The amendment was approved with the support of the Islamic coalition, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, after the party reached a deal with Musharraf’s supporters.
The religious coalition’s lawmakers stayed on the sideline of yesterday’s proceedings, neither supporting nor opposing the general.
— Additional input from agencies
