LAHORE, April 22: Former foreign minister Sardar Assef Ahmad Ali has said that another amendment will be made to the constitution shortly to allow President Gen Pervez Musharraf to continue in uniform beyond Dec 31, 2004
, the date by which he has to leave either the army chief's office or presidency.
Talking to reporters after a meeting with Punjab PPP president Qasim Zia at the latter's residence here on Thursday, Sardar Ali said that 18th constitutional amendment would be brought to remove the restrictions put on Gen Musharraf in the 17th amendment.
In reply to a question, the former PML minister said Gen Musharraf would neither doff his uniform nor become chief of the PML-Q. Referring to the merger of various PML groups, he said the military ruler, like his predecessors, was doing this all to strengthen his political position. However, he pointed out, all such experiments had failed in the past immediately after military rulers' departure from power corridors.
"The current experiment is also doomed to fail," said Sardar Ali, who has recently joined the PPP. The provincial PPP president regretted that the sanctity of the Constitution was not being maintained as 'conspiracies' were being hatched to sabotage even the amendment that had been introduced at the behest of the army chief.
Asked if the ARD could be made an election alliance to counter the government, he said nothing could be ruled out in politics. Answering a question, he said that in politics doors of talks could not be closed to anyone and added that the PPP could hold negotiations with Gen Musharraf if he agreed to abide by the Constitution.
He said the ARD had joined hands with the MMA for requisitioning the Senate session under an issue-to-issue cooperation formula and there was no plan to form a combined opposition.
