Pakistani coalition wrangles over president, judges
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Pakistan's ruling coalition parties wrangled over the presidency and deposed judges on Sunday, continuing infighting critics say keeps them from tackling rising militant violence and a sagging economy. (UPDATED)
The Pakistan People's Party (PPP), the leading coalition partner, said on Saturday the widower of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, Asif Ali Zardari, would be its candidate in the presidential election set for September 6.
The move further annoyed another former prime minister and the chief of the second biggest party in the alliance, Nawaz Sharif, who has been pressing for reinstatement of judges purged by
Musharraf resigned as president last Monday in the face of threatened impeachment by the coalition.
The deepening differences between the PPP and Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (N) look increasingly likely to lead to a break-up in the six-month-old coalition.
"If they're taking steps unilaterally then what we can do? It looks like the People's Party wants to break ties with us," Sharif's party spokesman, Ahsan Iqbal, said on Sunday.
Sharif wants the post of president stripped of strong powers, in particular to dismiss parliament. But a senior official from Bhutto's party has made it clear that would only be dealt with after the presidential election.
Iqbal said his party's leadership would meet on Monday to decide on a plan of action after the move by the PPP.
A small coalition partner from North West Frontier Province (NWFP) said on Sunday it would support Zardari in the presidential election. The new president will be chosen by
"It's time to keep the coalition intact as the country is facing serious threats of growing militancy and a worsening economy. We have decided to support Mr. Zardari," said Zahid Khan, spokesman for the Awami National Party which leads the government in the NWFP.
SPREADING VIOLENCE, SAGGING MARKETS
As the politicians bicker, militant violence has surged, adding to a sense of urgency for the fractious coalition government to end infighting and turn its attention to security and pressing economic problems.
The violence and political uncertainty, on top of weak economic data, have undermined investor confidence and sent the country's financial markets on a downward spiral.
The rupee set a new low of about 77.15 to the dollar on Friday but ended at 76.10/20. Stocks finished 2.4 percent lower.
On the security front,
In the latest confrontation, Pakistani troops and helicopter gunships targeted Islamist militant hideouts in the
Before the presidential issue emerged to distract the coalition from such fundamental challenges, the dispute between the PPP and Sharif's PML (N) -- bitter rivals during the 1980s and 90s when Bhutto and Sharif each were elected twice as prime minister -- centered on the fate of the judges Musharraf deposed.
The PPP is reluctant to restore the judges partly because of concern the deposed chief justice might take up challenges to an amnesty granted to Zardari and other party leaders from graft charges last year, analysts say.
Thrown together by opposition to Musharraf, differences are likely to loom larger now that he has gone, analysts say.
"If you look at the (parameters) of Pakistani politics, they're real fears and I've been fearing a lot that they'll go back to that kind of confrontation," Rasul Bakhsh Rais, a political analyst, said on Sunday on Dawn News television.
Sharif's party may not attend a meeting later in the day of a committee assigned to draft a resolution for restoration of judges, the PML (N) spokesman said, as Zardari, head of Bhutto's party, failed to give a commitment to reinstate judges by Monday.
"If they're not ready to give a promise, what use of going there. They have cheated with themselves, with us and now with the nation," Iqbal said.