Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf may replace PM Shaukat Aziz holding him responsible for the crisis generated by the suspension of the SC Chief Justice.
ISLAMABAD: Notwithstanding mild official denials, speculation is rife here that Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf may replace Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz holding him responsible for the crisis generated by the suspension of the Supreme Court Chief Justice.
Though a Presidential spokesman has denied these rumours as baseless, the body language of Aziz, his series of meetings with Musharraf and the ruling PML-Q President Shujaat Hussain after his return from New Delhi, where he had gone to attend the SAARC summit, on April 6 sparked off speculation that the President may have decided to make him the "scapegoat" for the action against Chief Justice Iftikhar M Chaudhry.
Chaudhry was suspended by Musharraf on March 9 for alleged misconduct and misuse of power. A five-judge Supreme Judicial Council led by Acting Chief Justice Rana Bhagwan Das is hearing charges against him.
The options being explored by Musahrraf to prevent the public protest over Chaudhry's suspension from snowballing included a major shake-up in the government -- possibly the resignation of Aziz admitting that he wrongly advised the President on the issue and thus directly taking responsibility and reinstating the Chief Justice, officials were quoted as saying by 'Dawn' daily.
The report said Musharraf, who has been holding several meetings with his confidants during the past few days, kept Aziz, a former Citibank Vice President-turned politician,
waiting for over 25 minutes in an adjacent room recenty. Aziz is the third Prime Minister under Musharraf since 2002 after Zafarullah Khan Jamali and Shujaat Hussain.
The crisis generated by the suspension of Chaudhry was seen by some in the administration as bigger than the problems faced by Musharraf while dealing with disgraced nuclear scientist A Q Khan who confessed transferring sensitive technology abroad.
The speculation over Aziz's removal was strengthened by the return of Hussain from his treatment in the US.
Known as Musharraf's trouble shooter, Hussain reportedly met Chaudhry to bring about a rapprochement, and Aziz's removal could ease the situation as the Prime Minister was not happy with Chaudhry ever since the apex court struck down the million-dollar privatisation of Pakistan Steel Mills last year.
His resignation was seen as an option as Musharraf was not sure which way the judgement of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) would go.
Musharraf could also let the judicial process take its course in the hope that the SJC would give its verdict against the Chief Justice. Even then no one is sure how the legal
fraternity reacts to such a decision, the paper said.
A more challenging situation may occur if SJC rules in favour of Chaudhry, whose judicial activism of the past makes his actions in the future a bit more unpredictable, it said.
The third possibility being contemplated is that Musharraf himself taking responsibility for the action or holding those responsible who advised him wrongly, decides to
withdraw the reference and reinstates the Chief Justice, it said.
Summing up the crisis faced by Musharraf, Railway Minister Sheikh Rashid said "the crisis is there. But it's not correct to say that some kind of change is imminent." However, he suggested that people watch the developments taking place on and after April 13.
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