Opposition parties oppose new presidency

Opposition political parties in Pakistan said General Pervez Musharraf’s move to the presidency will “severely hinder” the restoration of democracy in the country. “We are totally opposed to it,” Nawab Zada Nasrullah, spokesman for Pakistan’s Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) told IRIN on Monday. “It came as a complete shock.” The ARD, set up in December 2000, is comprised of 16 of the country’s main political parties, including the Pakistan People’s Party, headed by Benazir Bhutto, and ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Muslim League party. Nasrullah’s comments follow Wednesday’s swearing-in ceremony in which, under a provisional constitution order, Musharraf was sworn in as the 10th president of Pakistan, after dissolving the National Assembly and four provincial assemblies. Nasrullah said he had met Musharraf two days prior to the announcement, and had received no hint as to the events that followed. Musharraf replaced as president Mohammad Rafiq Tarar, who was reportedly informed of the move at very short notice. “We believe Rafiq Tarar was forced to resign,” Nasrullah asserted. Musharraf came to power following a bloodless military coup in October 1999. He suspended the assemblies and has been head of state under the title of chief executive since then. The decision to make him president was seen by some as a credibility measure needed before his 14 July visit to arch rival India to meet Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, a claim being denied by Musharraf’s military spokesman, Maj-Gen Rashid Qureshi. Nasrullah said the ARD would decide on Tuesday whether it would participate in a meeting on Wednesday with Musharraf to discuss his trip to India, the first by a Pakistani leader in two years. Nasrullah added that the ARD would continue to resist the “army dictatorship”, saying it had damaged Pakistan’s image abroad. “We are striving for democracy, and have been struggling against such dictators.” He maintained that people countrywide were “dissatisfied and astonished” by the news of Musharraf becoming president of Pakistan.