by Masroor Gilani
ISLAMABAD, March 17: Some 325 MPs, majority of whom oppose embattled President Pervez Musharraf, Monday took oath in the parliament convened after the February 18 elections.
The incoming ruling coalition comprising the parties of slain ex-premier Benazir Bhutto and former premier Nawaz Sharif, who was ousted by Musharraf in a bloodless coup in October 1999 and then sent into exile in Saudi Arabia, have vowed to bury the dictatorship to begin a new democratic era for the nuclear-armed South Asian country.
The incoming coalition had been opposing Musharraf's eight year military rule and have signed a charter of democracy and a declaration to undo the changes the former general, who retired last year, made to the constitution of the country.
Last year in November Musharraf imposed emergency rule, called a second martial law, to pave his way for a second five-year term as president. He sacked and detained supreme court judges who were hearing challenges to his candidacy for the presidential election.
His opponents are now taking power in the centre as well as three, out of four provinces and have promised to reinstate chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and other judges which Musharraf dreads. The US-backed president had sacked Chaudhry last year in March on misconduct charges which sparked nationwide protests in which 50 people were killed in political clashes in the southern port city of Karachi. Supreme Court reinstated Chaudhry in July, but Musharraf again struck on November 3, this time axing most of the judges.
It would not be a pleasant sight for Musharraf to see the same judges back in saddle and declaring his November 3 actions illegal. Also he will now have to administer oath to a new prime minister and cabinet ministers whom he had been calling corrupt and plunderer since 1999.
Musharraf opponents now have almost two thirds majority in the parliament which means that now they can impeach Musharraf, but the former general also has the power to dissolve the parliament, but it needs backing of military.
Musharraf's successor chief of army staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has said that he would not involve the powerful army in the politics which further weakens the beleaguered presidency.
Now the nation is waiting when Musharraf quits his job and let the democratic forces rule the country, which has remained under the shadow of military rule for most of the years since its independence from British rule in 1947.
Still there are many a slips between the cup and the lips as the "establishment" or the permanent invisible rulers consisting of civil bureaucracy, military and intelligence agencies are busy in power games.
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ISLAMABAD, March 17: Some 325 MPs, majority of whom oppose embattled President Pervez Musharraf, Monday took oath in the parliament convened after the February 18 elections.
The incoming ruling coalition comprising the parties of slain ex-premier Benazir Bhutto and former premier Nawaz Sharif, who was ousted by Musharraf in a bloodless coup in October 1999 and then sent into exile in Saudi Arabia, have vowed to bury the dictatorship to begin a new democratic era for the nuclear-armed South Asian country.
The incoming coalition had been opposing Musharraf's eight year military rule and have signed a charter of democracy and a declaration to undo the changes the former general, who retired last year, made to the constitution of the country.
Last year in November Musharraf imposed emergency rule, called a second martial law, to pave his way for a second five-year term as president. He sacked and detained supreme court judges who were hearing challenges to his candidacy for the presidential election.
His opponents are now taking power in the centre as well as three, out of four provinces and have promised to reinstate chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and other judges which Musharraf dreads. The US-backed president had sacked Chaudhry last year in March on misconduct charges which sparked nationwide protests in which 50 people were killed in political clashes in the southern port city of Karachi. Supreme Court reinstated Chaudhry in July, but Musharraf again struck on November 3, this time axing most of the judges.
It would not be a pleasant sight for Musharraf to see the same judges back in saddle and declaring his November 3 actions illegal. Also he will now have to administer oath to a new prime minister and cabinet ministers whom he had been calling corrupt and plunderer since 1999.
Musharraf opponents now have almost two thirds majority in the parliament which means that now they can impeach Musharraf, but the former general also has the power to dissolve the parliament, but it needs backing of military.
Musharraf's successor chief of army staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has said that he would not involve the powerful army in the politics which further weakens the beleaguered presidency.
Now the nation is waiting when Musharraf quits his job and let the democratic forces rule the country, which has remained under the shadow of military rule for most of the years since its independence from British rule in 1947.
Still there are many a slips between the cup and the lips as the "establishment" or the permanent invisible rulers consisting of civil bureaucracy, military and intelligence agencies are busy in power games.
�
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