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Tuesday,
April 30, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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A TRIBUNE SPECIAL Talks for Benazir’s extradition on 15 allowed to leave church
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A TRIBUNE
SPECIAL
For the third time in 42 years, the people of Pakistan are being asked to elect a military coup leader as their President in a nation-wide referendum on April 30. Field Marshal Ayub Khan held his referendum in February, 1960, about two years after his coup; Gen Zia-ul-Haq in December, 1984, seven years after his coup and now Gen Pervez Musharraf is following suit after two-and-a-half years of his coup. A besieged civilian Prime Minister, too, once thought of taking recourse to referendum to beat his political foes. It was Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who had served in Ayub’s cabinet for about 10 years and had thus acquired a dictator’s characteristics. In 1977, when faced with mounting pressure from the Opposition to resign as Prime Minister for having massively rigged the general elections that year in March, he amended the Constitution to provide that a Prime Minister could seek a vote of confidence of the people through a referendum. Ayub Khan and Zia (and now Musharraf) used referendums to clothe military dictatorship in the so-called people’s mandate. They held referendums when they had already made themselves Presidents and the USA and the Western world considered them indispensable for their global interests. These interests demanded strong military dictators in Pakistan but in the garb of democracy to pacify the pro-democracy public opinion at home. The Generals took full advantage of this duplicity to establish pseudo-civilian governments who derived their strength more from the military than from their voters to suppress democratic forces, the Press and the judiciary and flout at will constitutionalism and the rule of law. Ayub, Zia and now Musharraf, all described Western democracy as unsuitable for Pakistan. Ayub, Zia and Musharraf were all wielding absolute power as Presidents when they asked the people to endorse their position. Ayub had dislodged and sent into exile his benefactor President Iskaldar Mirza in October, 1958, and proclaimed himself to be the President. In addition to his position as the Commander-in-Chief and Head of government. Zia got himself sworn-in as President two days before the incumbent President Choudhry Fazal Elahi was to his post. Zia was in a hurry to become the President because he was expecting that his former benefactor Bhutto would appeal to the President for mercy against his death sentence passed on him by the Punjab High Court and was now in the Supreme Court. He feared that Choudhry Elahi being a PPP supporter might grant the mercy appeal. Musharraf removed President Rafiq Tarar to take his post in June, 2001. Now he held three positions — President, Chief Executive and the Army Chief. On the first anniversary of his takeover as President, Ayub issued the Basic Democracise Order, 1959, providing for 80,000 elected Basic Democrats. In February 1960 he used them as the electoral college to vote in a referendum to repose their confidence in him and authorising him to frame a Constitution for Pakistan. The question asked was: “Have you confidence in President Field Marshal Mohammad Ayub Khan, Hilal-i-Jura’at?” A yes vote meant two things: (1) Ayub was authorised to make the Constitution, and (2) he would be deemed to have been elected President of Pakistan for the first term under the would-be Constitution. The Election Commission said more than 95 per cent Basic Democrats voted yes. The Constitution that Ayub made was promulgated in 1962. Its Preamble read: “Now, therefore, I, Field Marshal Mohammad Ayub Khan, Hilal-i-Pakistan, Hilal-i-Jura’at, President of Pakistan, in exercise of the mandate given to me on the 14th day of February, 1960, by the people of Pakistan, do hereby enact the Constitution.” In May, 1977, when Bhutto failed to reach a compromise with the Pakistan National Alliance (PNA), who was asking his resignation, he threatened to go directly to the people to obtain their confidence. He amended the Constitution to provide: “If at any time the Prime Minister considers it necessary to obtain a vote of confidence of the people through a referendum he may advise the President to cause the matter to be referred to referendum in accordance with law made by Parliament.” However, his referendum plan remained still-born. He was deposed by Zia in July, 1977, and his amendment ceased to be in force with effect from September that year. When Ayub won the referendum, Pakistan was an important constituent of the US-led anti-Communism defence pacts. Ayub was greatly admired in the West for having taken his country to these pacts. But when Bhutto came, he took Pakistan out of the South-East Asian Treaty Organisation (SEATO) and the Central Treaty Organisation subsequently became defunct. In other words Pakistan had now lost its strategic importance for the United States by insisting on buying a reprocessing plant in pursuit of his nuclear ambitions. Hence, he could not hold the referendum. He lost his power and soon his life. The year Bhutto was executed (1971), Pakistan again became a frontline state for the USA and the West thanks to the Soviet entry into Afghanistan. Pakistan, under Zia, became more than a willing partner in the US-led campaign to demolish the Soviet Union. Zia overnight became a big name. The USA chose to look the other side from his preparation for a nuclear bomb and the Pakistan Army’s patronage of the drug trade. it was during this honeymoon that Zia held a referendum to continue as President. Between July, 1977, when he captured power by deposing Bhutto, and December, 1984, when he held his referendum, Zia had paralysed the PPP after the execution of Bhutto, neutralised the Muslim League and Jamaat-i-Islami by including them in his government on the first anniversary of his coup; gagged the Press, controlled the judiciary and promulgated his own Provisional Constitution Order. Yet he dared not face an election to continue to be the President. He feared he could not win in a fair and free election against politicians. Hence the referendum. But in the referendum, too, he was afraid to ask a straight question whether or not the voters wanted him as President. The question asked was whether the voter endorsed his Islamisation programme. A yes vote was taken to mean a vote for him as the President. Yet hardly 15 per cent voters turned out, although the Election Commission said 62 per cent. Zia had held the referendum under his Referendum Order, 1984, and not under Article 48 of the Constitution as Musharraf is doing now. Article 42 lays down the procedure for the election of President. He is elected by the two Houses of Parliament and by four provincial assemblies. But Article 48 only authorises the President to order referendum if a matter of national importance so required. Section 6 of Article 48 says: “If, at any time, the President, in his discretion, or on the advise of the Prime Minister, considers that any matter of national importance should be referred to a referendum the President may cause the matter to be referred to a referendum that is capable of being answered either by yes or no.” This justification for holding the April 30 referendum has been challenged by the whole lawyers’ community in Pakistan. The Bar Association of Pakistan calls the proposed referendum unconstitutional and illegal. A Judge of the Baluchistan High Court first resigned as member of the Election Commission and then from the High Court calling the referendum unconstitutional. The Supreme Court is hearing five petitions all challenging the Constitutionality of the referendum. All major religious and political parties have vowed to frustrate the referendum plan. The Press is critical, too. But, if his speeches at public meetings are any indication, Musharraf is not unnerved by the current storm of opposition. With or without referendum, he has decided to continue in power to provide what he claims continuity to his reforms programme. On April 5, when he announced his referendum plan he made it very clear that the Prime Minister and the National Assembly which would result from the October elections would be subordinate to him and not sovereign as the Constitution envisages them to be. Thus one is not sure what kind of democracy will be restored in Pakistan after the October elections. The Constitution provides for a Parliamentary form of government but Musharraf seems to be moving towards a Presidential form although the Supreme Court has not given him powers to change the basic structure of the Constitution. |
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Musharraf addresses nation Islamabad, April 29 Addressing the nation on the eve of the referendum, General Musharraf said the future of the nation would be bright and “a new morning will dawn in the country.’’ General Musharraf described his meetings "as very encouraging’’ with politicians, non-government organisations, minorities, students and religious groups. Refuting the charges of huge spending on the referendum, he said a very little amount of money had been spent to decide “a issue on national cause and not on his personality.’’ He said after the referendum he would consult the people again to seek their views to bring minimum possible amendments to the Constitution. These minimum amendments, he said, would be in the interest of the nation.
UNI |
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Talks for Benazir’s extradition on Islamabad, April 29 Quoting National Accountability Bureau chief Munir Hafeez, the paper said in a front-page report that talks with other countries were on for the extradition of Bhutto, living in self-exile in Britain and the UAE. “We will like to have her extradition. We are proceeding in that direction,” Hafeez said from New York. The paper said some “unexplained” steps had been taken by President Pervez Musharraf’s government to get Bhutto extradited. Hafeez said the courts had convicted her and in any case, she would have to face the law. Bhutto is facing criminal cases in different courts. She left the country in April 1999, when the Nawaz Sharif government was in place, and never came back. She had also been convicted by a high court in absentia in a corruption case. President Musharraf said she and Sharif had no place in Pakistan politics. Bhutto’s party is planning her return to the country before the general elections in October. “Yes she will come back before the elections,” her information secretary Farhatullah Babar said. But the military regime said Bhutto would be arrested if and when she returned. Dubai: Pakistan People’s Party leader Benazir Bhutto has called for boycott of the referendum tomorrow to extend President Pervez Musharraf’s term for five years, saying it was the last chance to save the country from dictatorship. “Apart from the constitutional aspect of holding a referendum, Gen Pervez Musharraf is not even eligible to take part in any election because he is not a graduate,” Benazir Bhutto claimed. “Everybody knows I was at Harvard University when I was just 16. I don’t need to give any explanations about my educational qualifications,” she told the Gulf News.
IANS, PTI |
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15 allowed to leave church
Bethlehem, April 29 The Israeli army said troops besieging the church had shot the man because he was armed. A brief exchange of fire with other gunmen in the church followed. A Palestinian source said the man, identified as 28-year-old Nidal Abayat, had been standing in the church garden. Abayat was a member of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. HEBRON: Dozens of Israeli tanks backed by helicopter gunships swept into this city early on Monday killing seven persons, witnesses and Palestinian security sources said. The Israeli army said it was searching for suspects, arms and explosives in Hebron following Palestinian attacks launched from the city such as the one which killed four Israelis, including a five-year-old girl, at a nearby Jewish settlement on Saturday. Israel also dug in its heels over a UN fact-finding mission to the Jenin refugee camp. The proposal calls for Israeli forces to leave Arafat’s compound in the city of Ramallah and let him travel anywhere once six persons, including four involved in the assassination of an Israeli cabinet minister, are moved to a Palestinian prison where they will be guarded by the US and British wardens. In New York, the UN Security Council began talks to discuss its response to Israel’s latest request for a delay to the UN fact-finding team on Jenin waiting in Geneva since Wednesday. Foreign Minister Shimon Peres again said Israel had nothing to hide at the camp, but was concerned at possible legal implications for Israeli witnesses who might testify. Bush called Israel’s acceptance of his compromise “helpful and constructive”. The White House said Sharon would visit the USA soon for talks with Bush.
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