ISLAMABAD, 3 October 2007 — In a move widely seen as part of a power-sharing deal, Pakistan yesterday agreed to grant former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto an amnesty on corruption charges, as President Gen. Pervez Musharraf named a new army chief just days before he seeks re-election.
On a day of dramatic developments, a majority of the legislators from the All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) submitted their resignations at the National Assembly and the four provincial assemblies. In all, 164 deputies submitted their resignations.
Two female lawmakers from the ruling party also quit, state media said.
“This is a historic day. The presidential election holds no constitutional legitimacy now,” parliamentary opposition leader and hard-line Islamist Maulana Fazlur Rehman told reporters.
The move to drop a raft of graft charges against Benazir, who has vowed to return to Pakistan on Oct. 18, satisfied one of her key demands for a power-sharing deal with the embattled Musharraf.
“The government has agreed to grant an indemnity on cases against Benazir Bhutto,” Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, a close confidant of Musharraf, told a private TV channel. “The decision was taken in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.”
Benazir, who served as premier between 1988 and 1990 and again from 1993 to 1996, has lived in self-imposed exile in London and Dubai since 1999 because of the charges pending against her.
Top government officials said the move would be formalized by Musharraf in a presidential order granting amnesty to politicians facing cases that dated from 1985 to 1999 “as part of his national reconciliation drive.”
But they said the amnesty would not cover another ex-premier, Nawaz Sharif, the man whom Musharraf ousted in a coup. Sharif was deported within hours of his return to Pakistan last month when he tried to return from exile.
Earlier in the day, in another important development, Musharraf showed his commitment to an earlier promise to quit the military if he wins the election by naming the former head of Pakistan’s top spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to succeed him as the chief of army staff.
Lt. Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani is a close lieutenant of Musharraf and as the head of the shadowy ISI, he headed the task of hunting down Al-Qaeda operatives and maintaining internal security.
“Gen. Kiyani is widely respected as a thorough professional,” top military spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad said, confirming Kiyani’s appointment.
Kiyani led Musharraf’s side in talks with Benazir in London and the United Arab Emirates earlier this year.
The military said Kiyani would take up the position on Monday, indicating that the president could hang up his uniform either the same day or on Tuesday, shortly after Saturday’s vote.
Musharraf has promised to step down by Nov. 15 if he wins the presidential ballot in the national and federal assemblies, where his allies hold a large majority.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court earlier said that it would hear today legal appeals lodged by the two candidates standing against Musharraf in the presidential election. Former judge of Supreme Court Justice Wajihuddin Ahmad, who quit rather than swear allegiance to Musharraf after his 1999 coup, and Benazir party Vice Chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim both called for the vote to be halted.
— With input from agencies
