By Muhammad Najeeb, IANS
Islamabad : Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon – who arrived here Wednesday – has been assured that Pervez Musharraf will quit as army chief after being re-elected as president for another five-year term.
The assurance was given to McKinnon during his meetings with President Pervez Musharraf and Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri, according to reports.
McKinnon is on a three-day visit to Pakistan that is likely to remain dominated by political turmoil as the country prepares to hold presidential and parliamentary elections.
McKinnon is also scheduled to meet Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retired) Qazi Farooq and political leaders from different parties.
A senior official of the presidency said that McKinnon met the president at his camp office in Rawalpindi. “It was a one-on-one meeting,” the official said without giving the details.
However, unconfirmed reports said that the president has assured the visiting envoy that he would be quitting the army chief’s office after his re-election as president.
The Commonwealth, a 53-member grouping of former British colonies, suspended Pakistan from its decision-making council when Musharraf seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999. Pakistan was readmitted to full membership in May 2004, but since then the grouping has urged Musharraf to step out of his uniform.
A Commonwealth statement issued earlier said that the Secretary-General would reiterate the group’s position with respect to the president’s retention of two offices, as spelt out by the Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) in Malta in November 2005.
The Commonwealth represents one quarter of the world’s governments, one-third of its population and one-fifth of global trade, and still carries considerable authority in Pakistan, which gained independence from Britain after partition from India in 1947.
At the Malta CHOGM in 2005, heads of government noted that the holding by the same person of the offices of head of state and chief of army staff is incompatible with the basic principles of democracy and the spirit of the Harare Commonwealth principles.
The assurances about Musharraf shedding army uniform also came as the Supreme Court in Islamabad is hearing six identical petitions filed by politicians, lawyers and individuals against Musharraf for keeping two offices – presidency and chief of the army staff.
On Wednesday, the court continued hearing the case as one of the petitioners made arguments.
One of the six petitions has been filed by rightwing Jamaat-e-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed and another by cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, chief of Tehrik-e-Insaaf party.
The opposition is also protesting at a change the Election Commission has made in the rules for the presidential election that lifts a ban on public servants running for presidency. But according to the constitution, a government employee cannot contest parliamentary or presidential elections until two years after leaving the job.
Imran Khan said the change announced by the Election Commission on Monday was made “to protect Musharraf against any disqualification but we won’t let him do this… we have confidence in courts.”
His lawyer Hamid Khan said in the court, “The court should declare it unconstitutional.” nine-member bench of the Supreme Court headed Justice Rana Bhagwandas is hearing the petitions.