Quashing rumours: ‘Article 47 cannot be invoked against me’

 

 

The 1973 Constitution stipulates that the president can be removed from his office, if he is physically or mentally unwell and hence unable to perform his official duties.

 

“Notwithstanding anything contained in the constitution, the president may … be removed from office on the ground of physical or mental incapacity or impeached on a charge of violating the constitution or gross misconduct,” reads Article 47 of the constitution.

 

But President Zardari says he is fine and invoking Article 47 against him is out of the question. “How can somebody invoke Article 47 against me – I’m alright,” he told The Express Tribune contributor Nusrat Javed.

 

“But if still Article 47 is invoked against me, I will contest the next election with the slogan ‘I don’t accept such a constitution,’" Zardari said quoting from the famous poem of revolutionary poet Habib Jalib.

 


The main opposition party – Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz – has been calling upon the government to disclose ‘full facts’ of the mysterious circumstances in which the president flew to Dubai.

 

On Wednesday, presidential spokesperson Farhatullah Babar said that President Zardari had been shifted from the American Hospital to his residence in Dubai where he was recuperating.

 

According to his medical report, all investigations were within normal range – but medics advised him to rest at home.

 

“I’m here in Dubai as a prisoner of doctors, and will return home as soon as they permit me,” the president said. “I’m anxious to board a plane and return home. The sooner the better,” he added.

 

The medical report says, “Asif Ali Zardari was admitted to the American Hospital Dubai on Tuesday, December 6, 2011, with a chief complaint of left arm numbness and twitching with a transient episode of loss of consciousness that lasted a few seconds.”

 

(Read: Is the ‘Get Zardari’ campaign democratic?)

Published in The Express Tribune, December 17^th, 2011.