ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN — The senior party in Pakistan's ruling coalition on Saturday unveiled a long-awaited package of constitutional reforms aimed at sharply reducing President Pervez Musharraf's powers. But the plan faces many obstacles, not the least of which is unruly fighting within the coalition.
Musharraf's bitterest enemies, including lawyers groups, are demanding that the unpopular president be driven from office altogether, not merely sidelined.
They are threatening a campaign of massive street protests if Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, the chief justice Musharraf fired last year, is not restored to his position along with dozens of other dismissed judges. Lawyer-led protests last year generated a groundswell of opposition to military rule under Musharraf.
The Bush administration is concerned that Musharraf's abrupt ouster could lead to instability in nuclear-armed Pakistan and hamper efforts to battle the Taliban and Al Qaeda in the country's tribal areas.
Under the proposed reforms, which would require approval by a two-thirds majority of lawmakers, the president would no longer have the power to dissolve parliament, or to appoint provincial governors and the head of Pakistan's military.
The U.S.-backed Musharraf, under intense international pressure, gave up his post as military chief late last year and allowed parliamentary elections to go ahead. His party was subsequently trounced.
Asif Ali Zardari, who took over leadership of the Pakistan People's Party after his wife, Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated Dec. 27, said the reform package would be put before lawmakers by the end of June. But the coalition, in power less than eight weeks, has found it hard to stick to self-imposed deadlines, including its pledge to reinstate the fired judges within a month of taking office.
Zardari has taken a more conciliatory stance toward Musharraf than has his main coalition partner, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. That has caused Zardari's domestic popularity to falter while Sharif's grows.
Sharif, who was overthrown by Musharraf in a 1999 coup, has declared that the president must step down. Zardari has maintained that curtailing Musharraf's powers is preferable to an all-out confrontation.
"We intend to walk him away, rather than impeach him away," Zardari said at a news conference Saturday in the capital, Islamabad.
