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BEIJING: Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf Tuesday called on
the country’s new National Assembly to convene next Monday after
two major parties, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan
Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), agreed to form a coalition government
last weekend.
The call came as two suicide attacks rocked the
eastern Pakistan city of Lahore, killing at least 24, the latest in
a string of similar attacks in recent months. The escalation of
violence triggered growing concerns about Pakistan’s security
prospects and its potential impact on the power-sharing within the
incoming coalition government.
Security needs
Tuesday’s twin blasts, which rocked a federal
police headquarters and a private business in Lahore, were the first
acts of terrorism since Nawaz Sharif, leader of the PML-N, and the
party of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto announced the
formation of a coalition government.
At least seven suicide attacks have taken place
in the three weeks following the Feb. 18 parliamentary elections in
which the PPP secured 120 seats in the 342-seat National Assembly,
or the lower house of parliament, followed by Sharif’s party with
90 and the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Q 51.
Lahore, the country’s cultural capital which
had been spared the sort of raids seen in all other major cities in
the past year, has suffered three attacks in two months.
Destabilizing regions
The party of Sharif blamed a military operation
ordered by Musharraf for destabilizing the regions bordering
Afghanistan.
Musharraf also condemned Tuesday’s bombing,
saying they cannot deter the government’s resolve to fight the
scourge of terrorism with full force, Pakistan’s official news
agency reported.
He said that a new counterterrorism strategy
would be drafted following the convening of parliament next week.
PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and Sharif, in
their agreement to form a coalition government, also vowed to
grapple with the violence engulfing the country.
”Terrorists are trying to put pressure on the
government-in-making. But I am sure the government-in-making will
also have the same resolve to deal with terrorism,” said interior
ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed Cheema.
Critics said the terrorism was not going to ease
unless there is a change in the country’s domestic and foreign
policies. They added that Pakistan needs to seek political and
economic solutions to combat militancy through dialogue with
different groups.
Political tension soaring
The winner of the Feb. 18 poll, the PPP and the
PML-N, announced Sunday that they would work on forming a coalition
government with the prime minister from the PPP.
“We undertake to form a coalition together for
Pakistan, as the people of Pakistan had given a mandate to the
democratic force on Feb. 18,” said Sharif after his meeting with
Zardari at the scenic town of Murree in eastern Pakistan.
In a joint declaration, they agreed to reinstate
Supreme Court judges fired by Musharraf last year through a
parliamentary resolution within 30 days of the government’s
formation.
Musharraf imposed a state of emergency and
sacked some 60 judges on November 3, days before the Supreme Court
was due to rule on the legality of his new presidential term before
he stepped down from the post of army chief.
Sharif’s party said the new parliament would
decide Musharraf’s political fate. Sharif has repeatedly called
for Musharraf to resign in recent weeks, while the PPP has ruled out
immediate plans to seek the president’s removal.
On Tuesday, Musharraf summoned the new
parliament to meet on March 17, setting up a showdown with his
rivals that could potentially intensify the country’s political
chaos.
Despite mounting pressure, the president made it
clear that he was not ready to resign.
“We have to move forward in a way that we
bring about a stable democratic government to Pakistan,” said
Musharraf.
Analysts expected clashes ahead but did not
dismiss the possibility that the parliament could hammer out a
compromise, as Zardari seemed less keen on a fight with Musharraf
than Sharif. And investors in Pakistan remained optimistic that any
confrontation between the parliament and the president would be
short-lived.
Premier choice deferred
The PPP is expected to nominate Makhdoom Amin
Fahim, a long time aide from the province of Sindh, as its candidate
for premiership. But the party turned out to be tardy in naming its
Prime Minister candidate, deepening uncertainty about the
power-sharing within the new government.
As a senior leader of the PPP, Fahim was the
parliamentary leader of the PPP in the National Assembly and
presidential candidate in October 2007.
Local newspaper The Nation reported Monday that
Fahim was facing opposition from Sharif, who doubted Fahim’s
intention to carry out the coalition government’s agenda of
restoring the deposed judges after he is appointed prime minister.
Sharif also believed Fahim might be reluctant
for Musharraf impeached by the parliament if the option was
considered at some later stage.
Zardari, who had said in public repeatedly that
Fahim would be nominated as the PM candidate, shifted his rhetoric,
saying the PPP would review its earlier decisions on the PM slot.
Reports said that Zardari, who is not
immediately eligible to be premier, had finally decided to seek the
post after initially fielding a prime minister from Punjab province.
The PPP is expected to finalize its candidate
for the office of the Prime Minister in a couple of days, the
official Associated Press of Pakistan reported Tuesday.
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