ISLAMABAD, 19 August 2007 — Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf yesterday pledged that presidential and general elections would be “free and fair” and held in accordance with the country’s laws, state media reported.
Presidential elections will be held between Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, while general elections are due late this year or in early 2008. “The presidential election will be held in accordance with the law and the constitution,” the Associated Press of Pakistan quoted Musharraf as telling MPs and mayors in Bahawalpur.
“Both general and presidential elections will be held in a free and fair manner,” said the country’s military ruler, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999.
Opposition parties say that under Pakistan’s constitution, a military general cannot stand in presidential or general elections.
Critics say his decision to suspend the country’s chief justice in March — later overturned by the Supreme Court — was a naked bid to remove any constitutional obstacles to remaining “president in uniform.”
Graft Cases Against Sharif
The government has reopened corruption cases against former Premier Nawaz Sharif, days after he moved the Supreme Court to end the exile imposed on him by President Pervez Musharraf.
Three cases, originally registered in 1999 involving financial irregularities in the purchase of property as well as tax evasion, were put on hold after Sharif was expelled from Pakistan a year later.
But a special accountability court in Islamabad Thursday authorized their resumption and set Aug. 25 for the next hearing.
The move is widely seen as a government attempt to bar the former prime minister from re-entering the country even if the Supreme Court annuls his exile by Musharraf, who deposed him in a military coup in 1999.
Sharif went on to lead an opposition movement to the military ruler from his base in London.
