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| India-Pakistan |
| Musharraf seeks powers to sack elected govt |
| 2002-06-27 |
| Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on Wednesday unveiled a series of constitutional amendments to arm himself with the power to sack elected governments and to provide a permanent role for the army in the country's power structure. Claiming that the amendments were aimed at establishing a sustainable federal democracy, Information Secretary Syed Anwar Mahmood told a news conference that the form of government remained entirely parliamentary with the executive authority of the state unambiguously vested in the office of the prime minister. But the proposed amendments would empower the president to relieve the prime minister and the Cabinet if the president felt that they were responsible for serious abuse of authority or failure to check corruption or compromise on national security interests or violation of the constitution. Another controversial amendment proposed to be introduced by Musharraf is the formation of the NSC by making the entire top brass of the military its members. This is what has Qazi's cork popping today — not that his cork doesn't pop over something nearly every day. It's pretty obvious what Perv wants to do: Pakland has shown its parliamentary system to be unstable and susceptible to boodle-grabbing by whichever party's in power. The presidency's been a figurehead office, with the real power lying with the PM, except when the military steps in, dissolves parliament and/or chases the current bunch of crooks out of the country. Strengthening the presidency to make the PM serve "at the pleasure of" same institutes a check on that power. Now, Pandora obviously has lots of goodies stored in that box along with the presidential power avenue. The potential for abuse by the president is pretty obvious, so there will arise later needs for checks on that power. But this does address the most obvious shortcoming in the system. The fact that the fundos are against it is an indication that they can see the potential for introducing some stability, which is to their detriment; a stable system's more difficult to persuade people to topple and replace with a khalifate. The fact that PPP and PML-N are against it is an indication that they don't like the idea of an outside power being placed between them and the boodle; both parties have shown a near breath-taking affection for corruption during their periods of power. Institutionalizing the military's involvement sounds like jobs for Perv's old army buddies, but it also recognizes the reality of the military stepping in when the civil government gets too seedy and incompetent. There's also the potential to set up a praetorian guard situation with this measure, as long as they're doing the Caesarism thing. It'll be interesting to watch how this one plays out, assuming he can get it through. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |