October 21, 2002	Monday	Sha’aban 14,1423

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ISLAMABAD, Oct 20: The law on the election of the prime minister is clear and the government is trying to create confusion to buy more time to manoeuvre simple majority for “its” party — Pakistan Muslim League (Q) — which it has not been able to, so far, legal experts said.

The military government’s law minister, Dr Khalid Ranjha, on Saturday had said that the absence of Senate had been creating some constitutional problems in the election of the new prime minister due to which it might be delayed.

Mohammad Akram Sheikh, prominent constitutional lawyer, and a former president of Supreme Court Bar Association, said the election of the prime minister had nothing to do with the existence of Senate.

“It is only a pretext to delay the transfer of power and give more time to those who are assigned to manoeuvre support for PML-Q.”

Akram Sheikh said that the terms and conditions on which the government wanted to “employ” a prime minister had apparently not been settled.

He said it was a consistent practice not only in Pakistan but throughout the democratic world that power is transferred to the elected representatives, within 10 days at the most.

He said the military government had gone beyond its mandate by not transferring the power within three years. He said that the Supreme Court judgment in Zafar Ali Shah case stipulated three years period for a return to civilian rule.

Those government advisors who were interpreting the Supreme Court judgment narrowly to make it mean that it required only holding of elections, were doing so for personal reasons while not keeping the “intent” of the judgment, he said.

Those monitoring the situation are of the view that the government had failed so far to muster up the simple majority of 135 members for PML-Q.

They hold that PML-Q with its tally of 77 members, and the National Alliance with its 13 members were nowhere near the goal of gaining simple majority.

Even if an overwhelming number of independents, 25 out of 28, go along with the PML-Q, the king’s party is still short of at least 20 members.

The support of smaller parties’ members like Balochistan National Party, Jamhoori Wattan Party, Mohajir Qaumi Movement, Pakistan Awami Tehrik, Pakistan Muslim League(F), Pakistan Muslim League(Junejo), Pakistan Muslim League (Zia) Pakistan People’s Party (Sherpao), and Pakistan Shia Political Party, with their twelve members in the assembly, would not be sufficient to ensure a simple majority. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement with its 13 members holds the key.

On the other side, the PPP, MMA and PML-N are almost near having a majority and the support of MQM could fortify their position, they say.

A government official, who wanted not to be quoted, said that the statement of the law minister was just a feeler, and a message was given to those who were reluctant to support the PML(QA).

The present government has adopted two different election schemes for the election to Senate.

The eight seats for Fata would be filled through direct election, whereas the remaining 92 senators would be elected by the members of the provincial assemblies. The election to Senate is scheduled to be held on Nov 12.