October 1, 2002	Tuesday	Rajab 23, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, Sept 30: The President of Azad Kashmir state government, Maj-Gen (retd) Sardar Mohammad Anwar Khan, is likely to call on President Gen Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday morning to discuss with him, among other things, the ongoing power-sharing row between him and the Prime Minister Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan.

Earlier, it was reported that the row over the violation of presidential powers had reached the point of no-return, and the powers that be had started mulling over changing the present power setup in AJK.

Sardar Anwar, fresh from his sojourn to New York, where he advocated Pakistan’s Kashmir case at the UN and other international fora, has had meetings with the top military hierarchy in the GHQ in the last couple of days, sources said.

He met the Vice-Chief of Army Staff, Gen Yusuf Khan, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, Gen Aziz Khan, and others on Friday and discussed with them issues confronting the state government.

The row over the division of powers, between the president and the premier of AJK, surfaced immediately after the ruling Muslim Conference agreed to give the president’s slot to Sardar Anwar Khan who volunteered for retirement from active military service.

With this arrangement, reports became rife that a balance of power would be struck between the president and the prime minister of AJK by enhancing the former. Sardar Abdul Qayum Khan, who was superseded by the power brokers over Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan, had told a gathering recently that bringing in Sardar Anwar was a compromise with the power-brokers to allow the Muslim conference take over power in AJK.

According to the sources, the cold war over the precincts of president’s powers turned hot recently when a few appointments of the high-calibre offices, like that of the Ombudsman, chairman and three members of AJK Public Service Commission, were made when the president was abroad.