Source: Bloomberg

By Khalid Qayum and Farhan Sharif

May 20 (Bloomberg) — The Pakistan Peoples Party, leader of the coalition government, will present a plan this month to reduce the powers of President Pervez Musharraf, which include the right to dissolve parliament and appoint Supreme Court judges.

“The constitutional package is one of the most critical issues right now,” and will be discussed May 24, Farhatullah Babar, a party spokesman, said in a phone interview from Islamabad today. Law Minister Farooq Naek said the proposal will be presented to lawmakers for approval before the budget debate in June, GEO television reported.

Pakistan’s four-party coalition split last week when Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League quit the Cabinet after failing to agree with the People’s Party on how to reinstate judges fired by Musharraf last year. Sharif has said he will support coalition efforts to curb the president’s powers.

The constitutional changes will cover the appointment and removal of judges, the work of the Election Commission and presidential authority, GEO cited Naek as saying. He didn’t specify which powers the party will target.

Governments headed by Sharif and PPP leaders, which alternated power twice between 1988 and 1999, were dissolved by the president four times without completing their terms.

The resignations of nine Muslim League ministers from the Cabinet on May 13 created disarray in the government as it prepares for a national budget that must tackle rising food and fuel prices.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar was among those Muslim League members who stepped down. The budget for the year starting July 1 is scheduled to be presented to parliament in the second week of June.

Election Victory

Political parties opposed to Musharraf formed the coalition government in March a month after winning general elections.

The government has to combat inflation that rose at the fastest pace in 25 years in April and a shortage of commodities, including wheat. Almost half of Pakistan’s 160 million people face difficulty getting affordable food because of the soaring cost of cereals, a World Food Program spokesman, Paul Risley, said on April 23.

The coalition government will survive the dispute over restoring the judges, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who belongs to the PPP, said yesterday. Gilani said he hasn’t accepted the resignations of the ministers because he expects them to rejoin as soon as the judges are reinstated, the official Associated Press of Pakistan reported.

Judges Dismissed

Musharraf dismissed 60 judges, including Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudhry, in November before the Supreme Court was to rule on whether to invalidate his re-election in October for a second five-year term.

Sharif, a former prime minister, quit the Cabinet because he wants the judges restored through a government decree after a resolution is passed in the lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, where the coalition has a majority.

Asif Ali Zardari, co-chairman of the PPP, says a decree might be challenged in the courts and wants a constitutional amendment passed by a two-thirds majority of lawmakers on restoring the judges. An amendment would have to be approved by the upper house, the Senate, where Musharraf’s supporters retain control.

Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup by ousting Sharif, surrendered his main source of power, the post of army chief, in November.

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Tags: Coalition Government, Musharraf, nawaz sharif, PPP, Zardari