LAHORE, March 26: President Pervez Musharraf has not objected to the release of detained judges on the orders of Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, official sources say.
“Under the Constitution, the executive authority is with the prime minister and since he has exercised it in ordering the release of the detained judges, the president has no objection,” sources told Dawn on Wednesday.
Now that an elected government was in place, they said, the president would not take any step that was beyond his jurisdiction. Even in the past the president always wanted to work within the limits set by the Constitution, but the previous government ‘unnecessarily referred’ to him various issues which were beyond his scope.
It created a wrong perception that the president was exercising the powers which otherwise were of the prime minister.
The president would have no problem even if the deposed judges were reinstated “provided a constitutional procedure is followed”, the sources said.
The constitutional procedure, they said, meant that a two-thirds majority of both houses of parliament could amend the Constitution for reinstating the judges.
Despite threats being hurled by various parties, the president saw no chance of an impeachment resolution being submitted against him. “For the time being there is no such possibility,” the sources said.
Asked how would it be possible for the president to work with a government that was opposed to him and also enjoyed more than two-thirds majority in the house, the sources said President Musharraf would retreat into the background, allowing the government to run the country in accordance with the Constitution.
“It’s the new government — not the president — that will run the country.”
The sources did not give much importance to the absence of leaders of the PPP, PML-N, ANP and JUI-F from the prime minister’s oath-taking ceremony on Tuesday.“When the prime minister came, every party in the coalition was deemed to be present.”
