Moves afoot to clip Musharraf's powers

Islamabad: Moves were afoot Saturday to clip President Pervez Musharraf's sweeping powers despite the United States standing by the beleaguered Pakistani leader rendered vulnerable after this week's parliamentary polls in which opposition parties scored stunning victories.

Pakistan Peoples Party(PPP), which has emerged as the single largest force in the new National Assembly, is planning to strip Musharraf of the power to dismiss Parliament under Article 58 of the Constitution which he had reinstated.

Leaders of PPP, which will head the next coalition government, have been holding closed door meeting to chart out their course of action which is likely to be made public on Monday. However, in a clear indicator that it would curtail the President's powers the party said in a statement that the participants in the meeting had vowed to work for the restoration of the parliamentary supremacy "by undoing undemocratic provisions under which elected parliaments have been dismissed."

The party meanwhile put off naming prime minister till the first week of March but veteran Sindhi politician Makdhoom Amin Fahim continued to be the frontrunner.

For Musharraf the positive news emanated from Washington where Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice gave credit to him for holding free and fair elections and said, "the President of Pakistan is Pervez Musharraf.... And so, of course, we will deal with him."