Opposition vows to undo Musharraf amendments

A key opposition group vowed today to try to undo amendments President Pervez Musharraf made to the constitution before lifting emergency rule.

Raja Zafarul Haq, chairman of the Pakistan Muslim League-N party, also said the six-week state of emergency “will leave a bitter legacy” long after Mr Musharraf leaves.

Pakistan’s press have criticised the constitutional changes as a blow to Parliament’s sovereignty.

Mr Musharraf said today he imposed the emergency on November 3 to save the country from destabilisation and fight Islamic militancy.

But Mr Haq said the close US ally in the war against terrorism used the emergency for “personal reasons” to stack the Supreme Court with “hand-picked” judges while it pondered the legality of his new term and to amend the constitution.

Mr Haq repeated claims that elections on January 8 for a new Parliament will be “rigged” but said his party will use the new legislature to remove Mr Musharraf’s amendments to the constitution, despite the president’s efforts to put the changes beyond challenge.

Several leading newspapers today hailed Mr Musharraf’s order a day earlier that lifted the emergency but criticised him for amending the constitution.

“A blow has been delivered to the very concept of parliamentary sovereignty because the amendments made to the constitution... by the fiat of one man do not need parliament’s approval,” the daily Dawn said in an editorial.

Mr Musharraf on Friday removed a condition from the constitution stating that civil servants – including army officers – had to wait two years after their retirement before running for elected office, Attorney General Malik Mohammed Qayyum said.

Mr Musharraf stepped down as army chief only last month. Removing the provision in question eliminated one of the grounds on which his October re-election, by a Parliament stacked with his supporters, had been challenged.

Mr Qayyum said other changes sealed the retirement of purged Supreme Court judges. Their replacements swiftly approved Mr Musharraf’s re-election by a Parliament stacked with his supporters.

During the emergency, Mr Musharraf kept a tight lid on dissent, cracking down on press freedom, firing independent-minded judges and detaining thousands of opposition lawyers and political activists.

Mr Musharraf said in a nationally televised speech yesterday that the emergency helped slow the spread of Islamic militancy, but the country still faces a “grave situation” with the approach of the elections that will determine who will form the next government.

He said unnamed conspirators had hatched a plot with members of the judiciary to derail the country’s transition to democracy, and he warned political parties to avoid stirring up trouble.

“Against my will, as a last resort, I had to impose the emergency in order to save Pakistan,” Mr Musharraf said. “I cannot tell how much pain the nation and I suffered due to this conspiracy.”

The response was muted from the US, which has walked a fine line between criticising the democratic backsliding by Mr Musharraf and supporting a key ally against Islamic militancy.

“It’s a good step for the Pakistani people,” said Jeanie Mamo, a spokeswoman for President George Bush.