Pakistan's interim govt makes shaky start<\/p>\n
By Alistair Lyon<\/p>\n
ISLAMABAD (Reuter): Pakistan's caretaker government has made a
\nwobbly start since President Farooq Leghari sacked Benazir Bhutto
\nfor alleged corruption and misrule, analysts say.<\/p>\n
Meraj Khalid, the 80-year-old politician Leghari named as
\ninterim prime minister, has reiterated a vow to hold a general
\nelection on Feb. 3, as prescribed in the constitution.<\/p>\n
Yet political analysts say the 90-day interim period may prove
\ntoo short to put in place serious mechanisms to combat
\ncorruption, turn an ailing economy around or undertake badly
\nneeded political reforms, including the first census since 1981.<\/p>\n
\"It is self-deceiving to believe that the elections are going
\nto heave the country out of the political morass,\" wrote Syed
\nTalat Hussain in the English-language daily The News.<\/p>\n
Many Pakistanis reacted with relief and delight at the fall of
\nthe Bhutto government, which in its three years in power lurched
\nfrom one economic crisis to another, crushed ethnic militants in
\nKarachi at the cost of many lives and won an unenviable, but
\nunsubstantiated, name for corruption.<\/p>\n
But few look back with great nostalgia on the performance of
\nBhutto's main rival Nawaz Sharif, whose 30-month stewardship
\nuntil July 1993 was also marred by allegations of graft.<\/p>\n
Questions about Leghari's \"constitutional coup\" remain
\nunanswered. Why was it done in the middle of the night? What
\nprompted its apparent haste? How big a role did the army play?<\/p>\n
Sources at the presidential palace say that army chief of
\nstaff Gen. Jehangir Karamat and Supreme Court Justice Sajjad Ali
\nShah both met Leghari in the hours before Bhutto's removal.<\/p>\n
Leghari himself, suffering from unexplained ailments, has kept
\nsilent since addressing the nation late on Nov. 5 to justify the
\ndismissal of his longtime political patron.<\/p>\n
The impression of confusion and lack of direction is dimming
\nhopes of many Pakistanis that Khalid's caretakers will cleanse
\ntheir country of deep-rooted abuses practiced by members of its
\nprivileged ruling elite on both sides of the political divide.<\/p>\n
A vengeful Bhutto has lambasted Leghari for hypocrisy in
\nallowing his brother-in-law and classmates to be appointed in an
\ninterim cabinet supposedly fighting nepotism.<\/p>\n
Freely insulting his leadership qualities, she has also asked
\nhow he can complain of extrajudicial killings in Karachi after
\npreviously lauding her crackdown on militants there.<\/p>\n
Apart from keeping herself in the headlines, Bhutto, 43, has
\npetitioned the Supreme Court to overturn her dismissal by
\nLeghari, who used controversial powers dating from the era of
\nmilitary rule to oust her and dissolve parliament on Nov. 5.<\/p>\n
The case has yet to be heard, but even Bhutto's own lawyers
\nprivately admit that her public quarrels with the judiciary
\nduring her last six months in power may damage her chances of
\nbeing reinstated, as Sharif's dismissed government was in 1993.<\/p>\n
Khalid has promised to bring \"all kinds of charges\" against
\nBhutto and her husband Asif Ali Zardari, who has been detained
\nalong with several senior bureaucrats and intelligence agents.<\/p>\n
The government has transferred scores of other bureaucrats and
\npolice officers, and barred many from leaving the country.
\nHowever no charges have been filed against the suspects, held
\nunder a catch-all maintenance of public order law.<\/p>\n
Some new appointments have raised eyebrows. Two journalists
\nhave joined the government without quitting their old jobs --
\ncolumnist Irshad Haqqani as information minister and editor Najam
\nSethi as adviser on political affairs and accountability.<\/p>\n
Mumtaz Bhutto, estranged uncle of the ousted premier, was
\nnamed chief minister in Sindh province in an apparent ploy to
\nweaken Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party in its powerbase.<\/p>\n
The cabinet has approved an anti-corruption bill likely to be
\npromulgated soon as a presidential ordinance in the first of a
\nseries of reforms planned by Law Minister Fakhruddin Ebrahim.<\/p>\n
\"My agenda is to bring an accountability bill which is fair
\nand transparent,\" he told Reuters. \"Then I want to bring
\namendments in election laws, a freedom of information act and the
\nright to appeal against discretion of government officials.\"<\/p>\n
Yet the anti-corruption, or accountability, bill has already
\nbeen watered down to spare military officers from scrutiny.<\/p>\n
Khalid's finance adviser Shahid Javed Burki, on loan from the
\nWorld Bank, has unveiled sweeping plans for fiscal rectitude and
\nstructural reform. The International Monetary Fund has said it
\nplans to resume a stalled lending program to Pakistan.<\/p>\n
But Burki's assertion that Leghari has taken \"personal
\nresponsibility\" for ensuring that commitments to the IMF are
\nimplemented by an elected government rings hollow. Sharif's party
\nhas said it would follow its own economic policies.<\/p>",
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