Articles 41 and 42 of the Constitution say: "There shall be a President of Pakistan who shall be the Head of State and shall represent the unity of the Republic. The President shall not hold any office of profit in the service of Pakistan or occupy any other position carrying the right to remuneration for the rendering of services."
Now it is a foregone conclusion that Pakistan Peoples Party's (PPP) presidential candidate Asif Ali Zardari will be elected the 11th President of Pakistan on Saturday by the Parliament and the four provincial assemblies with comfortable majority. After issuance of notification of the successful presidential candidate by the Election Commission, Zardari is likely to take oath of the office on Saturday evening or Sunday morning and occupy the Aiwan-e-Saddar vacated by Pervez Musharraf on August 18, 2008 for the next five years.
Zardari has repeatedly said that during his presidency, the President House will be a hub of the PPP workers who would shout the slogans "Zinda Hai Bhutto, Zinda Hai Bibi, Zinda Hai, Jaye Bhutto". Would be President Zardari has also indicated that he would continue to hold political office of his party as co-chairman.
"But will President Asif Ali Zardari, if he continued to hold office of PPP co-chairman, represent the unity of the Republic" is the question being frequently asked by intellectuals, political analysts and workers. Business Recorder talked to eminent political scientists to have their views on the subject.
Former Dean and Chairman Political Science Department, Punjab University and Research Scholar Dr Rashid Ahmad Khan recalled that after taking oath as the first Governor General of Pakistan, father of the nation Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah resigned as the President of the Muslim League on 17th December. Pakistan Muslim League elected Chaudhry Khaliquzzaman as its President.
He said the President should be non-partisan and above party politics, otherwise he would not be in a position to represent the unity of the nation. He rejected PPP leaders' arguments that late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto also held two offices of the President and Chairmanship of the PPP.
Dr Rashid said that Yahya Khan transferred power to PPP chairman Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as President. Once the 1973 Constitution was promulgated late Bhutto became the Prime Minister and vacated the office of the President. Veteran journalist and analyst Aurangzeb said it goes to the credit of PPP leader Fazal Elahi Chaudhary that when he was elected President he resigned from his political party to become a non-partisan President.
He said Farooque Ahmed Leghari, another PPP candidate and close confidant of late Benazir Bhutto, who was elected President in 1993, also resigned from the party office to represent unity of the nation. Analysts recalled that Presidents Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan, Ziaul Haque, Pervez Musharraf were Army Generals, Ghulam Ishaque Khan a bureaucrat and Mohammad Rafique Tarar was a former judge. Therefore when they assumed the office of the President there was no need for them to resign from the membership of their political parties.
Therefore, they said, it was not a choice for Mr Zardari to relinquish or retain his political office as PPP co-chairman, but was compulsory for him to resign from his party and be a non-partisan President of the country to represent the unity of the nation.
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