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Fresh challenge to General Musharraf

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court issued notices to the government on Wednesday on fresh legal challenges to President Pervez Musharraf’s candidature in Saturday’s presidential election, and increased the number of judges on the bench hearing the case.

The petitioners, two of whom are also candidates in the election, while a third is a petitioner representing Pakistan’s “civil society”, want the court to stay the October 6 election.

Justice Javed Iqbal said the petitioners had raised “very serious questions of public importance”, and posted the case for Thursday.

The bench began the hearings with nine judges, but the proceedings broke up early when one judge withdrew, citing his presence on the bench that dismissed a set of petitions against President Musharraf’s election bid last week.

The bench then reassembled with eight judges, but later in the day, Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary added two more, expanding it to a 10-judge bench.

It appears that the difference between the new petitions and the ones thrown out by the court last week is that two “aggrieved parties” — President Musharraf’s rivals in the presidential race — are now involved.

Though the court did not give a detailed judgment while dismissing the previous set of petitions, legal experts believe the bench may have used the reasoning that the petitions were premature and that as the petitioners were not directly affected, they had no ground to seek legal redress.

The bench may have also reasoned that the Election Commission was the first appropriate forum to decide an issue of candidature.

The new petitioners approached the Supreme Court only after their objections to Gen. Musharraf’s candidature were turned down by the Election Commission

But barring a last-minute surprise from the court, the presidential election looks set to go ahead. Gen. Musharraf is likely to win another term on the strength of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Q)’s simple majority in the electoral college, comprising the National Assembly, Senate and the four provincial Assemblies.

In an interview to Geo television, he appeared upbeat about his election. He said he would relinquish his army chief post by November 15. He also said he would seek a vote of confidence from the new National Assembly after general elections in mid-January 2008.

More than 150 opposition parliamentarians and provincial legislators resigned in protests against the presidential election on Tuesday, but Gen. Musharraf said that the resignations would not affect the election.

The Opposition strategy to undermine the credibility of the election was never expected to carry weight unless the Pakistan People’s Party joined in. The PPP stood away from the en masse resignations. Statements from the PML(Q) and the government on Tuesday suggested that the government had tied up an understanding with the PPP by offering indemnity from graft cases to Benazir Bhutto.

Gen. Musharraf said the U.S played a role in the forging of an alliance between him and the Pakistan People’s Party leader Benazir Bhutto. He said an ordinance offering indemnity to Ms. Bhutto would also extend to the other opposition leader in exile, Nawaz Sharif.

But the PPP leader denied any understanding had been reached with the Musharraf regime on the withdrawal of cases, describing the statements from the government as “disinformation”. She said on Wednesday in London, where the PPP central executive committee is meeting, that her talks for power-sharing with President Musharraf were “totally stalled”.

The PPP central leadership is meeting in London on Wednesday and Thursday to consider its options in the presidential election, which the party leadership maintains may include resignation from the National and provincial assemblies.

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