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Musharraf redraws constitution { August 22 2002 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/22/international/asia/22STAN.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/22/international/asia/22STAN.html
August 22, 2002
Musharraf Redraws Constitution
By DAVID ROHDE
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Aug. 21 — Gen. Pervez Musharraf unilaterally redrew Pakistan's Constitution today, imposing 29 amendments that expand his control of the country he took over by coup in 1999 — changes that undermine coming parliamentary elections meant to return the nation to democracy.
The new measures state that he may make further amendments at will and allow him to dissolve the elected Parliament and to appoint the country's military chiefs and Supreme Court justices. The changes will also institutionalize the political role of the military in politics by allotting it some seats on a newly created National Security Council.
Opposition leaders assailed the move and vowed to fight to contain the power of the general, whose early popularity in a nation disillusioned by a decade of corrupt and incompetent civilian rule has faded. They called on the United States to press him to reconsider his stand.
The Pakistani leader, who declared himself president last year, is one of Washington's closest allies in its effort against terrorism.
Frederick Jones, a spokesman at the State Department, said the department could not comment because it had not yet seen a full transcript of the announcement and news conference. But he added:
"We believe it remains critically important for Pakistan to restore democratic civilian rule. While the details of how to accomplish this are a matter for the Pakistani people to decide, we stand squarely behind the establishment of democratic civilian rule under constitutional means. We continue to look forward to the holding of free and fair national and provincial elections in October. President Musharraf reiterated his government's commitment to such elections in his National Day speech last week."
The general, appearing in military uniform at a news conference here, signalled that the new Parliament would have no power to repeal the changes he decreed today.
"This is part of the Constitution," he declared at one point, waving his hand in the air. "I am hereby making it part of the Constitution."
As the legal basis for his sweeping actions, the general cited a May 2000 Supreme Court ruling granting him the right to amend the Constitution.
Rights advocates and opposition groups dismiss that ruling as coerced. They point out that it was made after the general seized power and a group of high court judges, refusing an order to take a loyalty oath to his provisional Constitution, resigned instead. Western diplomats said the changes announced by General Musharraf, who announced a series of proposed amendments in July, were not a surprise — that they were in fact less hard-line than some of the July proposals.
But they said the general, a former Pakistani Army commando, was showing a familiar tendency to alienate potential allies by dictating changes instead of building consensus. "If I remember correctly, the Emperor Charlemagne crowned himself too," one diplomat said here tonight. "It's the commando attitude." (In fact, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne.)
Political and rights groups said that if the United States did not try to curb the general, it would be following a long-established pattern. Washington has repeatedly turned a blind eye to military governments in Pakistan when they suited American short-term interests.
The United States supported the country's last military dictator, Mohammad Zia ul-Haq, who in turn backed an American program to arm Muslim guerrillas fighting Soviet troops in Afghanistan in the 1980's. But a vast network of fundamentalist Islamic schools established by General Zia produced the Taliban supporters and militants whom General Musharraf is combating today.
General Musharraf chose to side with the United States and withdraw his government's longstanding support for the Taliban after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. He has allowed American forces to use Pakistani military bases and airspace to attack Afghanistan and has cracked down on Pakistani Islamic militants, who have vowed to retaliate by assassinating him.
Some of his recent actions have cost him support among the middle class. For instance, a referendum he held in April that granted him a five-year term as president was widely viewed as fixed. And opinion polls show that a majority of Pakistanis oppose most of the amendments he enacted today.
The country's two main political parties were vociferous in their disapproval. A spokesman for one of them — the Pakistan Muslim League, the party of Nawaz Sharif, an exiled former prime minister — said it would use "every step short of violence" to curb the president.
"He does not believe in the right of 140 million Pakistani people to rule the country through their elected representatives," said the spokesman, Sidiqul Farooq. "No single person can play with the Constitution."
But it is doubtful that the league or the other main opposition group, the Pakistan People's Party of the exiled former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, has the power to effect much change. Western and Pakistani experts say neither has enough support to challenge the general directly.
In the 1980's and 90's Mr. Sharif and Ms. Bhutto each served two terms as prime minister. Their tenures were marred by allegations of gross incompetence and staggering corruption. The opposition has yet to produce a likely successor to either of them. The general has banned both from taking part in the elections. Ms. Bhutto, who is wanted here on corruption charges, has vowed to return from London and contest the vote; General Musharraf has said he will arrest her.
But analysts predicted that the general's ramrod approach to politics could well offset the opposition's weaknesses, fueling popular anger against his leadership.
Zafarullah Khan, a Pakistani social scientist, said he understood the general's disdain for the two former prime ministers, which flared again during his news conference today.
In response to a question about why his two competitors had been barred from the election, the general snapped: "You don't think that they have looted and plundered this nation? Is that your view? I want your view. What do you think? Has the nation condoned their loot and plunder?"
But Mr. Khan also said the general's zeal to rid the country of the two former leaders might inadvertently create an opening for them. If the elections are "free and fair," the two opposition parties will win a majority of seats in Parliament and then do their best to create chaos and confrontation in the government, Mr. Khan said.
The general's announcement today only cast further doubt on the likelihood of such elections. In addition, opposition parties are increasingly complaining of coercion and intimidation.
"We are witnessing how the police are being used to influence the election, we have so many complaints of interference and pressure," said I. A. Rehman, director of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. "At the moment the political parties may be disorganized, but the general has given them significant material to revive themselves."
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