Pak opposition MPs resign en masse

FE Team | Published: October 03, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Farhan Bokhari, FT Syndication Service
ISLAMABAD: At least 86 members of Pakistan's opposition APDM (All Parties Democratic Movement) alliance on Tuesday resigned from their parliamentary seats in an effort to undercut the legitimacy of General Pervez Musharraf's anticipated victory in Saturday's presidential elections.
Separately, Gen Musharraf named a successor to take over as chief of the military, in a key change at the top in Pakistan.
General Ashfaq Kiyani, who until last week was the Director General of the Inter Services Intelligence, the powerful counter-intelligence agency, will assume the post of vice chief of army staff on October 8 and will become the military chief when Gen Musharraf steps down, a military statement said.
Gen Musharraf has told the supreme court he will resign by November 15.
The opposition resignations - from the federal and three of the four provincial parliaments - will make no material difference to Gen Musharraf's re-election prospects given the majority the ruling Pakistan Muslim League - Quaid e Azam (PML-Q) holds.
In the electoral college, made up of the federal and the four provincial parliaments, 1150 bodies share 702 votes. Supporters of Gen Musharraf have said they have at least 60 per cent or 420 of those votes locked up.
But opposition leaders hope the resignations will further dent Gen Musharraf's credibility as he seeks a new five-year term to extend his eight-year rule.
"We are in a defining moment in our political history. Our action will raise questions over Musharraf's re-election; the credibility of the presidential election has been severely damaged," said Javed Hashmi, leader of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's opposition Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) party.
Imran Khan, former cricket star turned politician, who also resigned, said: "The only reason Musharraf is able to bulldoze his way through is because he has the backing of the army and the barrel of the gun. But as he fights growing political fires, his position will become untenable".
The future of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto remains unclear. Ms Bhutto is on Wednesday meeting key party leaders in London to decide if her party will resign from parliament.
PPP leaders said this week that Ms Bhutto's talks with Gen Musharraf on a power sharing agreement have essentially stalled. Barring a last-minute breakthrough, the PPP could be forced to abstain from the presidential election or resign from parliament.
The political uncertainty in Pakistan has fuelled concerns in the US, Gen Musharraf's most important foreign ally. Senator Joseph Biden, chairman of the powerful US Senate foreign relations committee, and Senator Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate appropriations committee's subcommittee on state and foreign operations, in a letter to Gen Musharraf on Friday voiced concerns "that recent decisions about the conduct of elections would jeopardise the political process and tarnish any results generated under these rules."
Opposition members of the provincial legislature in the north-west frontier province (NWFP) were the only ones not to take part in the en mass resignations.
The NWFP is ruled by the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), which is part of APDM. But pro-Musharraf members of the provincial legislatures this week brought a vote of no confidence against Akram Durrani, the MMA's provincial chief minister, forcing Mr Durrani to abandon plans to dissolve the provincial legislature in protest against Gen Musharraf's re-election bid.
In a related development, lawyers for the opposition filed fresh petitions seeking to block Gen Musharraf from running for another term as president. However, legal analysts said it was unlikely that he would be blocked as the supreme court has so far ruled in his favour on four of six petitions challenging his decision to contest the elections without giving up his post as chief of the powerful military.