Pakistan’s new government is avoiding a showdown with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf for now because it lacks the support needed to impeach him, the widower of Benazir Bhutto said.
In an interview with the BBC released on Saturday, Asif Ali Zardari also said he may seek election to parliament in June and said he could become prime minister “if it is needed.”
Zardari took over Bhutto’s party after she was assassinated in December and led it to victory in February elections. It leads a new coalition government that has vowed to trim Musharraf’s powers and revise his US-backed counterterrorism policies.
But Zardari said it would only confront the unpopular former army strongman if it can muster the two-thirds majority in parliament needed to impeach him.
“The parliament and the president have a formal relationship. For the time being, we are not breaking up that status quo. We don’t have that power,” Zardari told the BBC.
“For the sake of the country, we don’t want confrontation. But this doesn’t mean we accept him [Musharraf]. If we get the two-thirds majority we will think about making him accountable,” Zardari said.
Musharraf seized power in a military coup in 1999. His authority has waned since he finally retired as army chief last year and since the rout of his political allies in the parliamentary elections.
The new government plans to strip Musharraf of the power to dissolve parliament.
It has also pledged to reinstate Supreme Court judges purged when Musharraf imposed emergency rule in November to stop legal challenges to him continuing for another five years as president.
Former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who leads the second-largest party in the coalition and was ejected from office and exiled in the 1999 coup, is calling loudly for Musharraf to quit.
But Zardari said the government had many other things to do besides “besieging the president.”
Pakistan faces mounting economic problems, including electricity shortages and spiraling inflation. The government is struggling to contain ballooning budget and trade deficits as well as draw up a new strategy to counter Islamic extremism.
Zardari was not a candidate for the voting in February.
Only lawmakers can become prime minister, and Zardari chose low-profile Bhutto loyalist Yousaf Raza Gilani to front the coalition.
But he said that he and his sister would register as candidates for the seat in southern Pakistan where Bhutto had planned to run and where her death prompted officials to postpone elections until June.
FRAUD ALLEGED: The leader of an opposition alliance made allegations of electoral irregularities and called for a protest in Tirana as European leaders are to meet Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist Party scored a large victory in parliamentary elections, securing him his fourth term, official results showed late on Tuesday. The Socialist Party won 52.1 percent of the vote on Sunday compared with 34.2 percent for an alliance of opposition parties led by his main rival Sali Berisha, according to results released by the Albanian Central Election Commission. Diaspora votes have yet to be counted, but according to initial results, Rama was also leading there. According to projections, the Socialist Party could have more lawmakers than in 2021 elections. At the time, it won 74 seats in the
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
A Croatian town has come up with a novel solution to solve the issue of working parents when there are no public childcare spaces available: pay grandparents to do it. Samobor, near the capital, Zagreb, has become the first in the country to run a “Grandmother-Grandfather Service,” which pays 360 euros (US$400) a month per child. The scheme allows grandparents to top up their pension, but the authorities also hope it will boost family ties and tackle social isolation as the population ages. “The benefits are multiple,” Samobor Mayor Petra Skrobot told reporters. “Pensions are rather low and for parents it is sometimes
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose