The ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Q) and its coalition parties will file nomination papers of Pervez Musharraf in the Election Commission on September 27, 2007, for his re-election as President. This was decided at a meeting here on Saturday between Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and PML (Q) President Shujaat Hussain.
Shujaat said that PML and its coalition parties were committed to re-elect President Musharraf from the present assemblies to ensure peace, progress and stability in Pakistan. Shaukat expressed confidence that General Musharraf's re-election for another five-year term would ensure continuity and consistency of leadership and policies essential for future progress and prosperity of the country.
He said that President Musharraf would be the unanimous candidate of the ruling coalition, which has a clear majority in the parliament and the desired support from all provincial assemblies as well.
About the announcement of resignations by certain opposition parties, he said that the announcement reflected their hopelessness, and asked them to avoid playing negative and confrontational politics. He said that Judiciary is an important pillar of the State and is playing a vital role in dispensation of justice.
"Like other institutions, the Election Commission is also functioning in accordance with the Constitution, and I hope that the opposition parties would uphold the respect and dignity of every institution," he added. National Assembly Speaker Amir Hussain also met the Prime Minister and discussed the legislative agenda to be tabled in the coming National Assembly session.
The meeting was also attended by Minister for Information Muhammad Ali Durrani, Minister for Defence Production Habib-ullah Warriach, Minister of State for Information Tariq Azim, Advisor to Prime Minister on Political Affairs Tariq Javed, Chief Whip Nasrullah Dareshak and Senator Dilawar Abbas.
Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr Sher Afghan has said that even if majority of members of Parliament and the Provincial Assemblies resigned from the assemblies, it would not break the electoral college for election of the President.
He said that President Musharraf would be elected by majority of votes cast in the polling on October 6, 2007 and not by the majority votes of the electoral college, which is Parliament and the four provincial assemblies.
Meanwhile, the component parties of All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) were not in their usual upbeat mood on Saturday after the JUI chief Fazlur Rehman's announcement that he was not on board with APDM"s resignation decision.
The leader of Pakistan People's Party, Benazir Bhutto, also had not commented on the announcement of the presidential election schedule and was keeping all her options open. Some insiders said that last-minute efforts were being made to strike a deal between Musharraf and Benazir to share power in the future setup.