NYT : Musharraf Election Plan Is Challenged

Musharraf Election Plan Is Challenged

By SALMAN MASOOD | September 17, 2007

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Sept. 17 — The Supreme Court today started hearing a set of petitions against the plans of Pakistan’s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, to be re-elected while still in military uniform.

Opposition political parties and prodemocracy lawyers have filed identical petitions in the country’s highest court, adding pressure on General Musharraf, 64, who is in the midst of one of the worst political crises of his eight-year rule.

Qazi Hussain Ahmed — the leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, an opposition Islamic party — and Imran Khan, the cricket-player-turned-politician, are urging the Supreme Court to disqualify General Musharraf as a candidate in the upcoming elections.

A nine-member panel headed by Justice Rana Bhagwan Das started the formal hearing of the petitions today but turned down a request by Mr. Ahmed and Mr. Khan for a full panel of the Supreme Court to hear the legal challenges. The hearing is expected to last at least a week.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who was reinstated by the Supreme Court in July after fending off an attempt by President Musharraf to dismiss him, has chosen not to be a part of the panel hearing the petitions.

President Musharraf, who took to power in a bloodless coup in 1999, is expected to announce the schedule for his election in the next few days.

If he decides to run for another five-year term as president, he needs to file papers and be voted in by an electoral college of the national and provincial assemblies between Sept. 15 and Oct. 15.

Opposition political parties have said they will oppose any move by President Musharraf to participate in the elections while holding the office of military chief.

Opposition political parties have also lambasted the government after the Election Commission announced amendments to the rules for presidential elections over the weekend.

The new rules exempt the president from a ban on public servants running for re-election unless they retired two years before the election date. The opposition says this amendment was aimed solely to facilitate the re-election of President Musharraf, who is still serving as the chief of the military.

Sherry Rehman, the central information secretary of the opposition Pakistan People’s Party of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, said the amendments were an effort at “rigging” the election.

“Bending the rules to suit one-man rule has exposed the commission as a body that is unwilling to stand firm according to its constitutional mandate to hold all offices and contestants as equal before the law,” Ms. Rehman said in a statement today.

During the court hearing, Muhammad Akram Sheikh, appearing on behalf of Mr. Ahmed, challenged the legitimacy of General Musharraf’s tenure.

Given that General Musharraf initially seized power in a coup, there is dispute about exactly when his term as president began.

Mr. Sheikh argued that General Musharraf’s presidency had already run out and elections should have been held by Sept. 11, 2007.

Mr. Sheikh said that a law introduced in 2004 allowing General Musharraf to stay on as president and military leader was “discriminatory and should be struck down by the court.” He termed the new rules for presidential elections announced by the election commission as the “gravest contempt of the court.”

Earlier, there was a harsh exchange of words between a government lawyer and Aitzaz Ahsan, the lawyer who successfully defended Chief Justice Chaudhry against President Musharraf’s attempt to dismiss him. Mr. Ahsan was present in the court as amicus curiae, or a friend of the court who provides assistance.

Ahmed Raza Khan Kasuri, a firebrand lawyer who represents the government, strongly objected to the appointment of Mr. Ahsan as “amicus curiae,” questioning his impartiality and saying that Mr. Ahsan was politically opposed to President Musharraf.

Mr. Ahsan walked out of the court in protest. The court was adjourned until Tuesday.

After the hearing, dozens of political workers of Jamaat-e-Islami gathered outside the Supreme Court. Holding banners and placards, they shouted, “Go Musharraf, Go” and “Islamic Revolution” as Mr. Ahmed urged Pakistanis to take to the streets.

“I appeal to the Pakistani nation to come out with full forces against this dictatorial puppet of the United States regime,” Mr. Ahmed, the white-bearded opposition leader said, while punching the air.