Pakistan Views

The 13th session of National Assembly met on Monday, setting the stage for a showdown between President Pervez Musharraf and a coalition government that immediately vowed to take him on. Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari will lead the coalition after winning the most seats in elections in February, with the grouping of former premier Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League, as junior partner. “This is the last day of dictatorship,” Asif Ali Zardari told reporters after meeting Nawaz Sharif in the parliament building. “This is our first step. We have conveyed a message to the world community to support democracy which defeats dictatorship,” Zardari added. Nawaz Sharif said that the coalition’s strategy was “very clear — our agenda is democracy versus dictatorship. It has to end, it has to be defeated.” The session began with members of the 342-seat national assembly standing to attention, before a cleric recited passages from the Quran, AFP reporters said. Neither Zardari nor Sharif actually has seats in the assembly and both had to watch the ceremony from the gallery. Security was tight for the inauguration of the new parliament, following a bombing targeting foreigners at an Islamabad restaurant on Saturday. Politicians are also at risk following the martyrdom of PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto in a gun and suicide attack at an election rally on December 27 in Rawalpindi.
An announcement on the country’s new prime minister is expected later this week. Zardari is slated to take the post but will need to contest a by-election to become eligible. Both Zardari and Sharif avoided questions about the issue. The parliament is meeting with Musharraf’s popularity at an all-time low, and with his power already weakened by his resignation as army chief in November. His successor has vowed to keep the army out of politics. The biggest threat facing Musharraf from the PPP and PML-N is their pledge to restore some 60 judges whom Musharraf sacked in November under a state of emergency. But analysts say Musharraf appears to be ready to battle for his position.
Musharraf, who has repeatedly rebuffed calls to quit as president, said in a television interview shown late Sunday that “we have to run a democratic system. We are not a dictatorship, the system must function.” But in an apparent swipe at PML-N and PPP, he said Pakistan’s recent problems and the need for him to stay in power were due to a “vacuum of proper leadership.” A row is also brewing over the premiership.
Benazir loyalist and PPP vice-president Makhdoom Amin Fahim had been the prime contender, but party officials say Zardari now wants the post himself.