LAHORE, July 16: PML president Chaudhry Shujaat Husain says emergency can be imposed and general elections delayed for a year if 50 per cent members of any major opposition party represented at parliament tender en bloc resignations.
However, he rules out the possibility of the government using the Lal Masjid issue as a pretext to take such a drastic step, as apprehended by PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto.
Mr Shujaat told Dawn on Monday that President Pervez Musharraf, who was also the army chief, could not even think of allowing the law and order situation to deteriorate to get a justification to impose emergency or delay the electoral process. He said no Pakistani, least of them the president, would like the army officers and jawans killed at the hands of suicide bombers and militants.
The PML president said the government could exercise one of the two options in case the opposition lawmakers resigned: impose emergency and postpone the elections for one year, or dissolve the National Assembly, keeping the provincial legislatures in place.
Answering a question, he said that Benazir Bhutto had assured the government that her party would abstain from -- and would not oppose -- the presidential election by the present assemblies if cases pending against her were withdrawn.
He agreed with the suggestion that the government was not pursuing the cases against her in various courts of law. In his opinion, it was because of such gestures that Ms Bhutto had distanced herself from other opposition parties and had not participated in the multi-party conference in London.
Mr Shujaat said his party could consider forming a coalition with the PPP after the elections. But, he made it clear that the two wouldn’t contest the elections together as such a cooperation was not in the PML’s interest.
He said the PML and the PPP were poles apart because of their differing ideologies, and in rural areas followers of one party did not take part even in wedding ceremonies of the other. He hoped that he would be able to make it possible for the two to work together.
He reiterated that President Musharraf would be re-elected in uniform by the present assemblies. He said the president himself would decide when to take off his uniform.
As for statements made by some ruling party leaders that Gen Musharraf should step down as army chief, Mr Shujaat said it was their personal opinion and not the party policy.
When it was pointed out that none of the opposition parties had responded to his invitation for talks to work out a code of conduct to ensure free and fair elections, the PML leader said he had informed their ‘bosses’ about their indifference after repeated allegations that the government planned to rig the polls. Without naming anyone but leaving no doubt that he was referring to US diplomats, Mr Shujaat said the government had given its point of view to those with whom the opposition parties lodged their complaints.
In reply to a question, the PML president said some time ago it was being seriously considered that Gen Musharraf should become prime minister if the Constitution required him to take off his uniform. He said now that the situation had changed, the idea had been dropped.
Asked what situation was he visualising in case Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry was reinstated as Chief Justice of Pakistan, the PML president said the government would implement the apex court verdict. He said initially it was a judicial issue which was politicised subsequently. Now, he said, the ruling party would deal with it at a political level.
He urged the opposition parties not to exploit the Lal Masjid issue and let the system work smoothly. He said the government was not concealing the casualty figures and there was no need for the formation of a judicial commission to look into the matter. He said everybody should play his role in restoring normalcy and helping the aggrieved families.
