Ruling Pakistan party prepares constitutional package

Islamabad: A 62-point Constitutional package has been prepared for presentation to the parliament, ruling Pakistan Peoples Party leader Asif Ali Zardari said on Friday.

At a conference of the South Asia Free Media Association here, Zardari assured the legal fraternity that the judges deposed by President President Pervez Musharraf last year would be reinstated.

Zardari said that after a meeting with Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani he would discuss the constitutional package with allies in the PPP-led ruling coalition, including former premier Nawaz Sharif's PML-N party.

The PPP co-chairman did not divulge the contents of the package but vowed that his party was committed to restoring the original character of the 1973 constitution to strengthen democracy.

The draft is widely believed to contain provisions to do away with excessive presidential powers including authority to dissolve the assembly, which had been made part of the constitution by Musharraf.

Zardai gave no date for presenting the constitutional package to the parliament, but Prime Minister Gilani told a private channel that this would be done before June 10.

Legal complications

"We shall restore the judges," Zardari said, asking the lawyer community, which has announced to launch a long march programme from June 10, to be patient and give him time.

Referring to the demand by PML-N and bar associations that the judges be restored through an executive order, he said his legal team did not favour a "short-cut" approach fraught with risk of legal complications.

Zardari's spoke as a row with Musharraf appeared to be brewing over the PPP leader's harsh remarks in an interview to an Indian news agency against the president since the new government took over.

He told the Press Trust of India that Musharraf was a "relic of the past" standing between the people of Pakistan and democracy and there was tremendous pressure on the new government to ensure his ouster. Zardari said that although Musharraf still held considerable powers, the PPP-led coalition had to abide by the wishes of the people who wanted the former military ruler to leave.

Confrontation

He said, "The PPP is working to come up with a live-able formula for ushering in full-fledged democracy because after all that has happened, you cannot have an unelected and non-democratic president."

Sources said Musharraf, during a meeting with a number of senators yesterday, resented the Zardari jibe.

According to the sources, Musharraf told the senators he was constitutionally elected president for five years and that he did not want any confrontation.

Noting that despite having been in uniform he had introduced democracy to the country, Musharraf stressed that any political conflict would be harmful as cooperation and harmony was needed to tackle serious economic problems.