LAHORE, Nov 16: Gen.Pervez Musharraf, who was sworn-in as president for another five-years on Saturday, still has the power to amend the Constitution for a few more days, notwithstanding opposition parties’ stand that the general did not have such a power from day one despite a clear verdict of the Supreme Court on the subject.

The general will have the authority to bring in any further change to the basic law till the day he relinquishes the charge of the chief executive to new prime minister.

Prominent constitutional expert Abid Hasan Minto said on Saturday that all provisions of the Legal Framework Order (LFO) stood “enforced” and assertions by some political parties that they did not recognize the LFO or would not take oath under any Constitution other than the 1973’s were nothing more than a political statement.

Once an elected prime minister took over, he said, Gen Musharraf would be deprived of the authority to amend the Constitution and parliament alone would be competent to incorporate in or delete anything from the Constitution through a laid down procedure.

However, he said, it was also possible that before handing over power to elected prime minister, Gen.Musharraf made another amendment to the Constitution giving himself power to introduce any change to the basic law even in his capacity as the head of state. Mr.Minto was of the view that parties opposed to the amendments had wasted much of their time in discussing power-sharing formulae rather than mounting pressure on the military ruler to withdraw all changes he had made to the basic law.

He said even today if most of the elected MNAs signed a joint declaration against the amendments made through the LFO, the chief executive could be brought under pressure to use his power to withdraw them before new prime minister takes over.

ARD President Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan said on Saturday that the alliance and the MMA would continue their struggle to have the Constitution restored to its pre-October 1999 form. The amendments, he said, had defaced the Constitution and Gen.Musharraf should better take them back without delay.

The senior leader said that the ARD and the MMA had identical views on the subject and they would continue to mobilize public opinion.

Observers say that with the swearing-in of Gen Musharraf as president by virtue of the April 30 referendum, the country faces the same situation which it did in 1985. Gen Zia had taken over as an “elected” president on March 23 that year, simultaneously retaining his post of the army chief. He had not taken off his military uniform to the last day.