ISLAMABAD, May 21: President Pervez Musharraf has decided to himself handle the grave situation created by the ruling party’s mishandling of the reference against the chief justice and the media.

Dawn has learnt that the president has conveyed to the party his disappointment over the government’s ineptness and his plans to meet representatives of lawyers and the media to control the damage caused to his image.

The issues of the reference and the media, sources said, were so far being handled by intelligence agencies and some individuals in and outside the government.

Now, Gen Musharraf is inclined to the counsel of National Security Adviser Tariq Aziz and his Chief of Staff Lt-Gen Javed Hamid, instead of relying on the government and the ruling party.

“The president, when he met us on May 13, spoke his mind for the first time openly about the CJ and the mishandling of the media by the government,” said a source.

Gen Musharraf complained that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement had been left on its own after May 12 and said that he did not want relations with the Karachi-based party to be affected. Most of the participants, the source said, did not take a clear stand on maintaining the coalition with the MQM.

The president rejected a suggestion by a couple of MNAs, including Riaz Fatiana, that the government should withdraw the reference to defuse the situation.

“Forget about the withdrawal of this reference and move forward, as I cannot think about it for a minute,” the president was quoted as saying.

At one point, the source said, a move had been considered to make the prime minister a scapegoat for failure to handle the situation, but the matter was dropped because it would had sent a wrong signal to the outside world and the people of the country.

A source said the issue of imposing an emergency had been raised by the Leader of the House in the Senate, Wasim Sajjad.