NEW YORK, Sept 13: President Gen Pervez Musharraf has said he will give up the power to dissolve National Assembly once National Security Council (NSC) is in place.
“I have also taken away the power of the president to dismiss a government and dissolve the National Assembly. Now this power rests with the National Security Council. I have created new checks on his power,” he said at a press conference after his address at the United Nations late Thursday.
When a newsman suggested that he was concentrating all powers in his hands by enhancing the authority of the president, continuing as the army chief and creating National Security Council, Musharraf said it was wrong to say so. Instead of assuming more power, he said, he would be delegating power to the prime minister and would also share it with the National Security Council.
“Instead of assuming more power, I am creating a system of checks and balance. The prime minister will have the legislative and executive powers, not the president,” he asserted.
“We are preventing martial law by introducing constitutional reforms and bringing balance between power brokers through a system of checks and balance,” the president said giving a brief background of the recent constitutional reforms.
“I am of firm opinion that army must not govern and must do its own job,” he added.
“Our past experience leads us to the conclusion that to bring the army out, bring it in. So we have decided to put check on all the three power brokers, the President, the Prime Minister and the Chief of Army Staff,” he said.
INDIAN STANCE: Crticizing Indian stance, the president expressed frustration over its continued refusal to resume dialogue with Pakistan, which, he said, also reflected in the harsh language against India that he used in his address to the UN General Assembly.
He reminded the international community of the measures Pakistan has taken so far to engage India in bilateral talks and said that India’s stubbornness was responsible for the current tensions in the region. “We have done so much. Our government has taken so many initiatives. We want peace and harmony but what do you do when India does not respond? It causes desperation,” Musharraf said. “It is a language of desperation,” he added.
Asked if nuclear tests by India and Pakistan could also encourage Iran to conduct similar tests, Musharraf said Pakistan was committed to nuclear non-proliferation in its region because it was in the interest of the world peace.
Without naming Iran, he said any such development on its western border would be a cause of concern but Pakistan was not aware of developments in its neighbouring countries and therefore he was not in a position to comment on Iran’s nuclear programme.
US WARNED: Musharraf also warned that a US military strike against Iraq could encourage India to take similar action in the disputed Kashmir region.
Pakistan, he said, did not want to get involved in any attack on Iraq but might change its stance if there was an international consensus.
“President (George W.) Bush’s statement that the UN Security Council would be deciding about a preemptive strike is very encouraging,” Musharraf said while commenting on Bush’s speech at the UN General Assembly.
“But as a military (man), I think this doctrine of preemptive attack is not applicable everywhere,” he pointed out. “We will urge India not to try it because Pakistan is no Iraq and India is no United States.”
A US military action against Iraq, Musharraf said, would have “political, economic and military ramifications for Pakistan.” He said he was not disputing the case which Bush made against Iraq in Thursday’s speech. “All that I am saying in our own national interest. We don’t have any geographical affinity with Iraq. Our plate is already full, we don’t want to cause it to overflow.”
AFGHANISTAN:Defending Pakistan’s decision to support the US-led action in Afghanistan, Musharraf said the situation in Afghanistan was very different. “We have borders with Afghanistan. Terrorism in Afghanistan directly affected us. But if there’s an international consensus on Iraq, we would like to re-examine our position and observe reality.”
He said a concentration of US forces in northern Iraq would also cause concern to Turkey “and as I said, all these have international ramifications.”
Answering to a question about Osama, Musharraf said he believed the Al Qaeda leader was dead for two reasons: First, he said, Pakistan had credible intelligence reports that Osama had been in Tora Bora. There are hundreds of caves in Tora Bora, all of which had been bombed but some of which hadn’t been searched, Musharraf said. Second, he was a kidney patient and could not have survived without dialysis for so many months.
He said he was absolutely sure that Osama was not hiding in Pakistan because Pakistani troops, police and tribesmen were searching the area and would have arrested him had they seen him.
PAKISTANIS:Later, addressing the Pakistani community, the president elaborated various steps taken by the government to strengthen the national economy and to bring peace and stability in the country.
He explained that former prime minister Benazir Bhutto had been disqualified from elections because she was a convict and Nawaz Sharif had opted to stay away from the elections through an arrangement involving him, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
He said he was not willing to allow “the looters and plunderers to return to power” because the government did not want to bring “real democracy to Pakistan.”
Musharraf said terrorism in Pakistan was a fallout of the war in Afghanistan but Pakistan had not allowed it to spread.
He said that sectarian groups were operating in Pakistan with the help of Al Qaeda terrorists while some foreign intelligence were also exploiting the situation.
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