LAHORE, Oct 12: Despite being constitutionally empowered to do so, the new parliament will not be able to undo any amendment made to the Constitution through the Legal Framwork Order (LFO) nor replace Gen Pervez Musharraf with a new president. The reason is that parties committed to performing the two tasks don’t have the numerical strength required for the purpose.
An amendment to the Constitution can be made with a two thirds majority of the National Assembly and the Senate. Similarly, a two-third majority of both the houses is needed to impeach the president through a procedure laid down in the Constitution.
The results of the elections have made both the tasks impossible. (And the LFO and the presidency of Gen Musharraf cannot be challenged before any court of law on any ground).
Parties in the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy, the PPP and the PML(N) being its major components, and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Aml have been rejecting the constitutional amendments made by the military regime as also the results of the April 30 referendum, by which Gen Musharraf got his term extended by another five years.
They have been reiterating that they would undo the amendments and elect a new president as Gen Musharraf, being a military official, was not constitutionally qualified to become the head of State.
To undo a constitutional amendment, a minimum of 226 MNAs and 66 Senators will be required to support the move. Both the houses separately pass such amendments.
To remove the president at least 292 MNAs and Senators should join hands in a joint session of parliament.
If the seats won by the PML(QA) and the National Alliance for the lower house of parliament are excluded as they are regarded pro-government entities and are not in favour of striking down the LFO, the remaining parties can’t even together make any amendment to the basic law.
And any change to the Constitution will be impossible, no matter how strong opposition parties are in the Senate, unless they are in a position to have the amendment carried by the National Assembly as well.
There is little possibility of opposition parties being able to have a support of 292 parliamentarians (MNAs and Senators). Thus, there is no question of their being able to remove Gen Musharraf.
So far, the PPP, the PML(N) and the MMA have got 62, 14 and 45 National Assembly seats, respectively. They are not sufficient even to make simple majority, leave alone the two thirds majority, even if the remaining seats, out which the results have not been announced, go to them.
The composition of the new Senate, to be elected on Nov 12, would be according to the formation of the provincial legislatures, which are the electoral college of the Upper House. And since the anti-Musharraf parties don’t have even majority in the Punjab Assembly, they can’t be expected to get two thirds majority in the Senate, no matter how many Senators are elected by the remaining three provincial legislatures.
As a result, they will have to co-exist with President Musharraf and the Constitution, with all amendments made to it.
It may be recalled that the federal law minister had said recently that the LFO, through which drastic changes had been made to the Constitution, had been made part of the basic law and on revival of the Constitution they would be as valid as other provisions. Through the LFO, he said, Gen Musharraf stood elected president of the country.
To bring in a new president, the parliament would first have to impeach Gen Musharraf .
Analysts say that a parliament, no matter how strong, would not dare even think of impeaching a president who is also the army chief.