November 4, 2002	Monday	Sha’aban 28,1423

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ISLAMABAD, Nov 3: The Federal Minister for Information Nisar A.Memon on Sunday said the president’s term of five years will start from “the day he takes oath of his office.”

Speaking at a news conference here, he said: “I don’t see a situation emerging where the need of invoking article 58(2) could arise as the politicians were mature enough to resolve the issue of transition of power smoothly.”

He replied in the affirmative when asked whether the president would keep the cap of army chief of staff with him while being president.

When questioned whether it was not immoral for the sitting ministers to apply for the Senate seats and attempt to keep their ministries intact in the next government and whether the president would like that when he was championing his impartiality in the process of elections and transition of power, he said: “I have not met the president and can’t comment on his reaction. But as far as I am concerned, I have not thought over applying for the party (PML-Q) ticket for a Senate seat.”

He also dispelled the impression that the government had deliberately delayed convening of the assembly, saying, “it involved a lot of formalities, including the election on women’s reserved seats which have now completed and the session has been summoned.”

He declared on the occasion that the Musharraf government had, in line with the Legal Framework Order, decided to delegate all powers to the elected members of the Northern Areas Council in order to end the trouble that the NA administration was facing in undertaking day-to-day work.

To another question, the minister said the government had implemented the Supreme Court’s verdict of May 28, 1999, which emphasised devolution of power to the Northern Areas.

He said under the LFO, the government had devolved powers of the chief executive to the NA’s elected representatives, retaining home and planning development with the CE in Islamabad. Similarly, the powers so far exercised by the secretary KANA would also be delegated to the chief secretary Northern Areas.

He said the government had spent more than Rs3 billion over and above the approved budget for the development of Northern Areas over the last three years.

To a question why the Northern Areas were not being given independent status on the pattern of Azad Kashmir, the minister said it was a delicate question involving foreign policy, but so far as the financial and administrative autonomy was concerned “we have delegated the same to the elected members of NA legislature.”