Islamabad, Nov 28 (DPA) Pakistan’s beleaguered President Asif Ali Zardari has amended a key law to relinquish the executive control over the country’s nuclear weapons to the prime minister.
The change in the structure of the National Command Authority (NCA) came late Friday as part of 28 ordinances that Zardari had to reissue which otherwise would have lapsed after midnight Saturday under a Supreme Court ruling.
“The shedding of powers… was effected through re-promulgation of (the) National Command Authority Ordinance, 2009 and amending it also,” presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar said in a statement.
Zardari has been under pressure from all sides – political opposition, judiciary and military – to resign or at least become just a figurehead president.
An influential section of the media has been carrying on a campaign against him and his Pakistan Peoples Party for alleged corruption.
The News, an English-language daily of the Jang group which is seen as spearheading the campaign, alleged in a report Saturday that Zardari and Pakistani ambassador in Washington, Husain Haqqani, had discussed how to weaken the military’s hold on politics.
The News report surmised this from a report published by the US newspaper group McClatchy.
The Supreme Court had asked the government to decide the fate of 37 ordinances issued by former military strongman Pervez Musharraf, who resigned in August 2008 after his political backers were routed in general elections held earlier that year.
The controversial ordinances include the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), which is going to lapse after Saturday midnight.
The NRO cleared more than 8,000 politicians and public-office holders of graft charges. Zardari himself has also benefited from the ordinance, but he would enjoy presidential immunity from prosecution once the corruption cases reopen.
