LAHORE, Jan 16: Present assemblies cannot re-elect Gen Pervez Musharraf as president for another term and only the next parliament is competent to do so, says Sindh Assembly Deputy Speaker Raheela Tiwana.

“President Gen Musharraf should occupy the presidency for the next five years without giving up his military uniform ‘in the best national interest’. His re-election will only be constitutionally valid if the next parliament, coming into being after the general elections of 2007, chose him,” said Ms Tiwana, who is also a leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional, while speaking at Meet-the-Press programme of the Lahore Press Club on Tuesday.

She said the Sindh Assembly had set up a committee to get a feedback of the political parties over the construction of the Kalabagh Dam. She said the committee had compiled a report and formulated recommendations that would be sent to the president next month. She said that Sindh was not opposed to the dam but certain political parties had reservations over the project.

She said that the government should try to build a national consensus by taking all political parties and nationalist groups into confidence.

“We are not opposing the dam because Sindh, already facing a shortage of irrigation water, needs such multi-purpose dams more than any other province,” she said, adding the Sindh government could not cultivate a vast chunk of land because of the shortage of water.

She said Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) founding leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s execution was a judicial and political murder. He (Bhutto) was a great leader of the third world, she said. “I left the PPP because I found myself misfit in the party, particularly after Bhutto,” she said.

Ms Tiwana said that her party’s alliance with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) should remain intact for the next general elections because this was in the interest of the country and the province. She also supported the ruling party’s alliance with the MQM for the same reason.

She said lawlessness and terrorism had hit industries and also hindered foreign and local investment. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz was doing his best to improve the image of Pakistan at the international level, she added.