Pakistan & Nukes

Musharraf summons Pakistan parliament on
March 17
AFP

ISLAMABAD (AFP) — Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf Tuesday summoned parliament to meet on March 17, setting up a showdown with the opposition parties which routed his allies in elections last month.

Key US ally Musharraf is likely to face a hostile parliament after Asif Ali Zardari, widower of slain ex-premier Benazir Bhutto, and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif agreed on Sunday to form a coalition government.

The announcement came as the nuclear-armed nation was thrown further into crisis by a double suicide bombing in the eastern city of Lahore that killed at least 25 people.

"President Musharraf has signed the summary (summoning parliament) which Prime Minister Mohammedmian Soomro sent to him yesterday. The national assembly will now meet on March 17," presidential spokesman Rashid Qureshi told AFP.

Both Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) -- which won the most seats in the February 18 ballot -- and Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) had accused Musharraf of delaying the first parliamentary sitting.

The pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Q, which was in government between 2002 and November 2007, lost heavily in the elections.

The biggest threat to Musharraf is likely to come from Zardari and Sharif's pledge on Sunday to pass legislation within the first 30 days of the new parliament that will reinstate judges sacked by the president last year.

The dismissed judges -- including chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Musharraf's arch-foe -- could take up legal challenges to Musharraf's re-election as president last October if they are restored.

Musharraf imposed a state of emergency and sacked some 60 judges on November 3, days before the Supreme Court was due to rule on the legality of his new presidential term, which he secured while he was still army chief.

He stepped down as head of the army in November -- just over eight years after he seized power in a military coup -- under intense domestic and international pressure.

Sharif's party said the new parliament would decide Musharraf's political fate. Sharif has repeatedly called for Musharraf to step down in recent weeks.

The caretaker government had "unnecessarily delayed convening of the national assembly session, which shows that their intentions are not good," party spokesman Ahsan Iqbal told AFP.

"The new parliament will decide about the future of Musharraf, who was elected unconstitutionally," he added.

The PPP, which has been more guarded in its statements on the president, said it wanted parliament to start so it could begin its "reforms agenda".

"The session should have been convened much earlier. But better late than never," PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar told AFP.

"The Pakistan People's Party is fully prepared to enter into the parliament and make the government along with its coalition partners, and proceed on its reforms agenda," Babar said.