Aug 31
Aug 31
Aug 31
By Ansar Abbasi
General Pervez Musharraf will practically become Fazal Elahi Chaudhry if all the demands of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto she has publicly aired are accepted by amending the Constitution and different laws.
Under the 1973 Constitution, Pakistan has a parliamentary system of government. Therefore, Pakistan needs its president to be like that of Fazal Elahi Chaudhry as is the case in neighbouring India.
The question that haunts many minds and bothers several in the government as to what will Musharraf get by accepting all of her demands. “Nothing,” a source commented and argued that the presidential camp was not willing to concede to some of Benazir’s demands seen too ambitious.
Tags: Columns
Aug 31
LONDON: Benazir Bhutto and ISI chief General Ashfaq Kiani, Lt General (r) Hamid Javed, Tariq Aziz are said to be meeting here Friday (today) in a what many believe make or break negotiations to strike a “mother of all deals”.
Bhutto would be holding final negotiations on sharing power with General Musharraf with General Kiani, who had once served her as deputy military secretary in 1988-1990. She is said to have informed her party leaders who can be seen roaming on Edgware Road waiting for the meeting between Bhutto and General Kiani that the meeting would decide once for all whether there was a deal with General Musharraf or not.
Tags: News
Aug 31
By Muhammad Saleh Zaafir
The government established contacts with the authorities in Saudi Arabia Thursday evening in the wake of the announcement made by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to return to Pakistan on September 10, disregarding the ‘undertaking’ with international guarantors.
The government is confident that the Sharif brothers would not be able to make their return to Pakistan as a result of the interference by the Saudi elders. An envoy of the Saudi leadership is expected to contact the Sharif brothers in a day or two to remind them of the understanding pertaining to their exile from the country till December 2010.
Visibly upset over the Sharif brothers’ announcement, the presidency is exploring a number of steps to deal with the development including diverting the Sharif brothers plane to Jeddah, boarding them on arrival here, to yet another Jeddah-bound flight and declaring Islamabad airport as a ‘no go area’ on the D-day. Resorting to some extraordinary legal measures is also being studied as a last resort on the political side to deal with the upcoming situation.
Tags: News
Aug 31
Aug 31
By M. Ziauddin
Announcing that he along with brother Shahbaz Sharif will return to Pakistan on Sept 10, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif advised President General Pervez Musharraf to hand over power to the Senate chairman forthwith and go home.
He said his entourage would land at Islamabad and then proceed to Lahore taking the GT road.
Mr Nawaz Sharif made this announcement at a crowded press conference here on Thursday in the lobby of a four-star hotel in Central London. He was accompanied by Mr Shahbaz Sharif, Raja Zafarul Haq, Iqbal Zafar Jhagra and Ahsan Iqbal.
Mr Nawaz said his party in consultation with the All Pakistan Democratic Movement (APDM) had decided that the time had now come for the exiled PML-N leadership to return home and launch a decisive struggle against what he called the eight-year dictatorship and pave the way for genuine and lasting democracy.
Tags: News
Aug 31
By Raja Asghar
Seeming to put on a brave face against the worst political troubles of his presidency, Gen Pervez Musharraf insisted on Thursday he must be elected for another term between Sept 15 and Oct 15 before general elections within this year.
And he told a carefully conducted question-and-answer programme over the state-run Pakistan Television that there must be stability in the country in the run-up to the elections which, he said, would be free and fair, no matter which party wins and who becomes the next prime minister.
The president’s remarks came amid an intense speculation about his re-election and the future of his position as army chief as a result of a possible political deal with self-exiled former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, and the programme “Aiwan-i-Sadr Se” was aired minutes after exiled former prime minister Nawaz Sharif announced his decision in London to return home on Sept 10 and to oppose a deal that could give five more years to the man who ousted him in the October 1999 coup.
Tags: News
Aug 31
By Anwar Iqbal
The White House urged President Pervez Musharraf on Thursday to honour past commitments, but said it would be up to Pakistanis to decide if he should step down as military chief.
“Musharraf has made commitments in the past,” said spokesman Gordon Johndroe, adding that Pakistanis would have to decide whether Gen Musharraf should keep his military position.
Washington, first and foremost, “seeks free and fair elections” in Pakistan, he said.
Tags: News
Aug 31
By Ahmed Hassan
Pakistan Muslim League president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain on Thursday rejected Benazir Bhutto’s claims that 90 per cent of her party’s deal with Gen Musharraf had been completed. He said that only nine per cent of the issues had been resolved.
Addressing a news conference at his residence after a meeting with President Pervez Musharraf, the chief of the ruling party said he had conveyed to the president serious reservations of the party over the ongoing talks for a deal with the PPP and forwarded counter-proposals to him with regard to his uniform, 58(2) b and allowing a person third prime ministerial term.
Tags: News
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