Showdown likely over Constitution

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan���s caretaker government plans to print a new edition of the Constitution containing amendments made by President Pervez Musharraf during last year���s Emergency that have been rejected by the victorious Opposition, setting the stage for a possible confrontation with the new government.

The move has made newly elected lawmakers of the Pakistan People's Party and PML-N, who are set to form a coalition, wary as they may have to take oath under the Constitution with amendments that have been validated by the new Supreme Court comprising Musharraf's hand-picked judges who endorsed the Emergency.

The PPP and the PML-N have rejected the amendments, which they say are ���unconstitutional and invalid���, and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif has also vowed to get all of Musharraf's actions during the Emergency rolled back. On Thursday, Sharif and PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari said their lawmakers would take oath under the Constitution of 1973.

The PPP has also said it would not give ���blanket cover��� to the steps taken by Musharraf during the Emergency.
The interim government, however, believes the proclamation of the Emergency on November 3, the enforcement of the provisional constitution order, sacking of judges and other steps taken by Musharraf during the Emergency have been validated by the apex court and made part of the Constitution. It also asserts that ���the legislators-elect taking oath under the amended Constitution would, by implication, be endorsing all these steps���, the influential Dawn newspaper reported on Sunday.

A PML-N leader said the matter was being examined and ���some solution��� would be found by the time the national assembly convenes for its inaugural session next month. But a senior government official said: ���Obviously, (the new version of) the Constitution would contain Article 270 AAA under which amendments made before and during the... Emergency rule were given perpetual legal cover.��� If the printing of the Constitution was delayed, the official said, ���we will have to manually affix the corrections in the Constitution���.

Attorney general Malik Qayyum, a close aide of Musharraf, has said that no constitutional provision required validation by Parliament. The legal fraternity, which has been spearheading the campaign for the removal of Musharraf and the reinstatement of judges deposed during the Emergency, contends that the Constitution cannot be amended without a two-thirds majority in both houses of Parliament. The PPP and PML(N) emerged as the two biggest parties in the February 18 polls in which Musharraf-backed PML(Q) was routed.