By Muhammad Najeeb, IANS
Islamabad : Pakistan’s opposition lawmakers Tuesday resigned en masse in a bid to block President Pervez Musharraf’s re-election bid but the general stymied the protest somewhat by naming his successor as army chief.
Hours after 86 members of the National Assembly and 70 legislators of the Punjab, Balochistan and Sindh assemblies submitted their resignations, it was announced that the country’s former intelligence chief, Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani, would succeed Musharraf when he steps down, possibly by Nov 15.
Soon after this announcement, Musharraf signed an ordinance clearing former prime minister Benzir Bhutto of graft charges, a move that is likely to pave the way for her return home from exile and share power in the new dispensation after the Oct 6 presidential election.
In other developments, Musharraf’s two rivals in the election – Makhdoom Amin Fahim of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and retired judge Wajihuddin Ahmed – filed fresh petitions in the Supreme Court challenging his eligibility to contest.
And, lawyers across the country continued their boycott of courts to protest Musharraf’s candidature.
Responding to the call of the opposition All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM), the National Assembly members submitted their resignations to Speaker Amir Hussain. The legislators in the three assemblies submitted their resignations to the respective speakers.
Musharraf’s allies dominate the assemblies at the centre and in the provinces and he is likely sail through in the polls.
The president’s opponents, however, hope that the en masse resignations will cast doubts on the legitimacy of the polls as the Electoral College would be incomplete.
“We are handing over the resignations today because we consider the election of the president is illegal and unconstitutional,” senior APDM leader Liaquat Baloch said in the National Assembly before the speaker cut him short.
The 32-party APDM has announced plans to dissolve the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) assembly that it rules but the pro-Musharraf opposition there has moved a no-trust move against Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani in a bid to block the move.
Significantly, Bhutto’s PPP is not part of the APDM, which has alleged she fielded Fahim only to provide legitimacy to Musharraf’s re-election bid.
Before submitting their resignations, the APDM parliamentarians marched on the road in front of the parliament building, followed by about 2,000 political workers and chanted slogans like “This is the end of your show – Go Musharraf, Go” and “A friend of America is a traitor”.
“I should have done this earlier but still this is the first step to discredit the election process,” said cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, who was first to submit his resignation.
Fahim and Ahmed, meanwhile, lodged appeals in the Supreme Court saying the nomination papers Musharraf filed last week were invalid.
Ahmed, who quit as Supreme Court judge rather than swear allegiance to Musharraf after his 1999 coup, and Fahim both urged that the presidential election be stayed.
Musharraf won a major legal victory in the Supreme Court last week when it threw out a clutch of opposition petitions and ruled that the president was eligible to seek another term while continuing as the army chief.
Musharraf’s attorney had told the Supreme Court that he would quit his military role before Nov 15 if he wins the election.
Apart from promoting Kiyani to four-star rank, Musharraf made two other key appointments.
Kiyani, till recently the head of the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISID), was named the new vice chief of army staff and will succeed Gen. Ahsan Saleem Hayat, who retires Oct 8.
In the Pakistani system, the vice chief automatically succeeds the outgoing army chief.
Maj. Gen. Nadeem Taj, on promotion to three-star rank, will succeed Kiyani.
Gen. Tariq Majid, on promotion to four-star rank, has been named the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. He will take over on Oct 7 when incumbent Gen. Ehsanul Haq retires.
Political pundits say that the new appointments are the proof that Musharraf is in talks with Bhutto, who has demanded the appointment of a new army chief before the presidential elections.
Last week, Bhutto confirmed in New York that she had met Musharraf and was holding talks with his team for possible power sharing.
Musharraf is under tremendous domestic and international pressure to return the country to democracy and hold free and fair elections.