Musharraf, Bhutto sign power-share deal

Thursday 04 October 2007

Pakistan's Supreme Court throws President Musharraf's re-election bid into doubt a day after Musharraf's power-sharing agreement with ex-PM Benazir Bhutto.

Pakistan's top court threw President Pervez Musharraf's re-election bid on Saturday into chaos by ruling that the winner cannot be declared before legal challenges against the vote are resolved.
  
But Musharraf bolstered his position by signing a landmark reconciliation deal with exiled former premier Benazir Bhutto that paves the way for a power-sharing deal between two US-friendly political leaders.
  
Musharraf, who seized power of nuclear-armed Pakistan in 1999, needs Bhutto's support to legitimise his expected victory in the weekend's vote by an electoral college of the national and provincial parliaments.
  
The Supreme Court Friday ruled that the poll could proceed despite challenges by his two rival candidates on its validity and Musharraf's eligibility to stand.
  
Yet it delivered a blow to Musharraf, a key US ally in the "war on terror", by saying that the election commission cannot announce the result until it decides on those appeals in a hearing due to start in mid-October.
  
The decision effectively leaves a sword hanging over the head of Musharraf, who is controversially standing for another five-year term in office while still holding his position as army chief.
  
"The bench has unanimously resolved and directed that the election process should proceed as per the schedule announced by the chief election commissioner," chief judge Javed Iqbal said.
  
"But final notification of the returning candidate will not be issued until the decision of this petition, for which the process is to begin from October 17," he added.
  
Musharraf has been in conflict with the court since sparking mass protests by sacking its chief justice in March.
  
The ruling could delay former commando Musharraf's plans to shed his military role -- a position he has said is vital for fighting Al-Qaeda -- and finally become a civilian ruler before he takes the oath of office.
  
He had promised to do so by November 15 when his term ends and was expected to do so much earlier, possibly by Monday, but may now feel he needs the army behind him in case of a hostile court ruling.
  
Bhutto on Thursday made an about-face on a threat that MPs from her Pakistan People's Party would follow other opposition legislators and resign from parliament.
  
Their votes could be crucial if it appears that the Supreme Court verdict will go against Musharraf needs to make constitutional amendments that would overcome the legal challenges.
  
The deal signed by Musharraf on Friday, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, quashes 11 pending corruption cases against Bhutto and her husband Asif Ali Zardari that drove her into exile eight years ago.
  
The withdrawal of the charges, which involve 1.5 billion dollars that she and her spouse allegedly siphoned off, prepares the ground for Bhutto's planned homecoming on October 18 ahead of a parliamentary vote due by early 2008.
  
The deal also gives an amnesty for other politicians accused of corruption in Pakistan between between 1985 and 1999.
  
But it does not apply to ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif, whom Musharraf ousted in his coup, because he was convicted of a crime and because the cases against him date from 2000.
  
"President Musharraf has signed it. It is the beginning of a new era," Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid, one of Musharraf's closest aides, told AFP.
  
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said in a statement that the national reconciliation agreement, which was approved earlier by the cabinet, would bring harmony to Pakistan's long-standing political chaos.
  
"It is an important step in creating an atmosphere of tolerance and harmony in national politics, free of the vendettas and polarisation that marred the national political scene in the decades of 1980s and 1990s," he said.
  
The secretary general of Musharraf's ruling Pakistan Muslim league party, Mushahid Hussain insisted that the new law was "not person or party specific."
  
The White House made no comment on the agreement and repeated instead its call for "free and fair" elections.
  
However the United States has been quietly striving for a deal that would bring together two Western-friendly leaders together in a country wracked by violence linked to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.