ISLAMABAD, Sept 9: Acting parliamentary leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-N Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has said Gen Pervez Musharraf cannot retain the offices of the army chief and president simultaneously after December 31 under the 17th Constitutional Amendment.
Speaking at a news conference along with the party's information secretary, Siddiqul Farooque, here on Thursday, the PML-N leader said though his party considered the 17th Amendment illegal, but even under that amendment, Gen Musharraf would have to remove the uniform by December 31.
Chaudhry Nisar said Gen Musharraf, in his address to the nation, had pledged that he would put off his uniform by the set deadline. He said PML-N wanted to convene a grand meeting on the pattern of All Parties Conference (APC) in which representatives from political parties, lawyers, NGOs and other professionals would be invited to chalk out the plan if Gen Musharraf did not put off his uniform by December 31.
He said it was being claimed by the government representatives that Gen Musharraf's uniform was necessary due to security concerns and situation on borders. The PML-N leader said in that situation, the country needed a full-time army chief. He said even in the extreme situations army chief could not become head of the country.
The PML-N leader also ridiculed the Punjab chief minister's statement in which he said Gen Musharraf should retain the army chief office for another five years and that the Punjab Assembly was willing to pass a resolution in this regard.
He said if such a resolution was passed by the "so-called elected" assembly, then it would amount to politicization of otherwise a professional army. "Tomorrow, an assembly can pass a resolution demanding that a corps commander should be made chief minister or governor of a province," he added.
He clarified that the opposition was not against army as an institution. Rather, he said, it had been struggling to restore the past glory of the armed forces. "However, if you play in dirt, your hands and clothes will become dirty," he said, adding: "Your hands have already become dirty, please do not make the uniform dirty."
He said the uniform had been made controversial by the government itself and not by the opposition. "It is the government, which has made the uniform a public issue in every street," he added.
He also ridiculed the statement of Gen Musharraf claiming that 96 per cent people wanted to see him in uniform. The PML-N leader said recently, Asif Zardari had issued a statement that 99 per cent people wanted to see him as the country's president. Now, he said, what was the criteria to testify the two claims.
He said even the data of the Election Commission showed that the opposition parties had polled some 15 million votes as compared to eight million votes bagged by the ruling PML-Q and other coalition parties despite manipulation and rigging in the last general election.
Even this data of the Election Commission, "functioning under a person like Irshad Hasan Khan", proved that a majority of the people wanted that Gen Musharraf should remove his uniform.
He said the country was passing through a difficult phase. "This is a decisive moment for Pakistan's history", he added. In reply to a question, he said it was wrong to say that the uniform was not a public issue.
He was of the view that today the people were suffering only because of this "uniform. "Had there been democracy in the country, he said, parliament would have been taken into confidence on all important matters like Wana operation.