October 17, 2002	Thursday	Sha'aban 10, 1423

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LAHORE, Oct 16: President Gen Pervez Musharraf will have no objection even if the National Assembly elects as prime minister somebody who is opposed to the constitutional amendments made during the past three years or who has been dubbing the April 30 referendum as unconstitutional, presidential spokesman Gen Rashid Qureshi told Dawn on Wednesday.

“Whatever the wish of parliament, the president will hold it supreme,” he said in reply to a question.

The PPP Parliamentarians whose leader Makhdoom Amin Fahim is making contacts with other parties to be able to form a coalition government, and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal are committed to scrapping all the constitutional amendments made during the past three years, and electing a new president to replace Gen Musharraf.

The PML(N), whose exiled leader Nawaz Sharif has repeatedly offered full cooperation to the PPP to form its government, has taken exception to the PPP’s moves to join hands with the PML(Q) as a betrayal of the ARD’s charter.

The matter will come up for discussions at an ARD meeting in Islamabad on Thursday and the PPP may be asked by Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan and the PML(N) to explain its position.

Top PML(N) sources said on Wednesday that the ARD had virtually come to an end with the PPP’s initiative to join hands with a party which until recently it had been tagging the King’s party.

Gen Qureshi said that according to a judgment of the Supreme Court President Musharraf was under an obligation to hold elections within three years, and he met it within the deadline.

Now, he said, it was for the National Assembly to decide who should be the next prime minister and the president had no role to play in this regard. Whatever the choice of the elected representatives, would be respected, Gen Qureshi assured.

The president, he said, would have no problem in working with the new prime minister nor was there any apprehension of confrontation between the two.

Asked if the president was so large-hearted that he would coexist with a prime minister no matter which party be belongs to and how would he be able to ensure the continuity and sustainability of policies he had been insisting he would, Gen Qureshi said the president would have no objection if his policies were “improved” by the new government.

Gen Qureshi said there was no change in the government’s policy about Benazir Bhutto. She was an “absconder” who, on her return home, would have to face cases pending against her, he added.