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| Sunday, 24 November 2002 |
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New Pakistan prime minister faces balancing act By Tahir Ikram ISLAMABAD, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Pakistan's newly elected civilian prime minister, due to take the oath of office on Saturday, appears caught between a powerful pro-Western president and a strong opposition led by hardline Islamists, analysts said. Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali of the pro-military Pakistan Muslim League was elected prime minister with a thin majority on Thursday and will become the first civilian head of government since General Pervez Musharraf's October 1999 military coup. Jamali will have to work in the shadow of Musharraf, a strategic member of the anti-terror coalition led by the United States. Musharraf, president for another five years with the power to dismiss parliament, will resist any changes in the foreign and economic policies that have endeared him to the West. But Jamali cannot antagonise a powerful opposition dominated by hardline Islamists, some of whom were closely linked with Afghanistan's former Taliban leaders and who are demanding Islamabad close U.S. bases and introduce Islamic laws. "Jamali and his government will have to pull off a very delicate balancing act," political analyst Aqil Shah told Reuters. "He has hardline Islamists on one hand who will make foreign policy a focal point of attack." Shah said although Jamali has a bumpy ride ahead, there was also realism within the opposition that their survival depends on making parliament work. A close aide to Jamali told Reuters that Jamali was well aware of the tightrope he had to walk. "He has his feet on the ground, he will try to take everybody along," he said. COMPROMISES AHEAD As a sign of the compromises that might come, the new parliament offered a brief funeral prayer on Thursday for Mir Aimal Kansi, a Pakistani executed in the United States last week for the 1993 murders of two CIA employees. Hailed as a hero at home, Kansi's funeral on Tuesday in his native city of Quetta, capital of Jamali's southwestern Baluchistan province, was the largest such gathering in living memory, residents said. The prayer in parliament was the sort of gesture that might worry foreign observers, but Western diplomats say action and cooperation in the war on terror is more important than words. The Islamist alliance rode a wave of anti-American sentiment to make surprising gains in the October election, winning an unprecedented 60 seats and taking control of two provincial assemblies. Even though they have been excluded from government, they will form a formidable opposition and will try to embarrass the government whenever they can. Western diplomats expect some fiery anti-American debates in parliament. "Making (anti-U.S.) statements is one matter but they do not want to destablise the whole thing," Jamali's aide said. "They will also want to work towards the next election." The aide argued that the liberal Pakistan People's Party of exiled former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was also unlikely to challenge Jamali over foreign policy. However, there is one issue on which the opposition is united and where Jamali can expect a tough time -- how much power should Musharraf have. Both Bhutto's party and the Islamists have vowed to overturn constitutional changes introduced by Musharraf this year to enhance his powers and institutionalise the role of the military through a national security council. Some analysts say Musharraf himself might have to compromise, and accept some watering down of his powers to allow his allies in parliament to remain in power. "This can only be done by negotiating a permanent peace with parliament as a duly elected civilian president with some of the stabilisation power he seeks," the popular weekly Friday Times said in its front-page editorial on Friday. "The alternative is constitutional gridlock and political instability." |
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