ISLAMABAD, 1 October 2007 — President Gen. Pervez Musharraf who is seeking re-election as president on Oct. 6 is likely to face more petitions.
“Why do you always write he is seeking re-election? He was never elected before,” a jittery Sen. Babar Awan from Pakistan People’s Party and a Supreme Court lawyer told journalists, adding, “he got permission from the top court with a threat of martial law and got electoral rules altered unlawfully. We are going to challenge all of his acts in the Supreme Court. This time our petition will be about the competence of the chief election commissioner regarding alteration of electoral rules which is tantamount to amending the constitution.
But more serious in his battle is another presidential candidate, retired Justice Wajihuddin. He is in joint constitutional petition with PPP’s presidential candidate Makhdoom Amin Fahim.
Sen. Latif Khosa and Sen. Babar Awan are moving the Supreme Court today. A similar petition will be moved at the Sindh High Court by Sen. Farooq Naik. Sen. Naik will represent Fahim’s covering candidate Dr. Faryal Talpur, the sister of Asif Ali Zardari.
Munir Malik, the lawyer of Justice Wajihuddin, told reporters yesterday, “We had raised various legal and constitutional points before the Chief Election Commissioner retired Justice Farooq Qazi. We have still not received a reply from the CEC. But our petition will be based on alteration of electoral rules within the framework of Article 61 and Article 63 of the constitution. We have only read a press release of the Election Commission published by all the newspapers of Pakistan and aired by TV channels.”
PPP’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar told Arab News, “From Tuesday we will be going for a real legal and constitutional battle against Musharraf. Let’s see what kind of relief we get from the top court.”
Justice Wajihuddin will submit his petition today at the Supreme Court.
Apart from legal battles Musharraf is being confronted at the streets of Pakistan. Initially he was opposed by lawyers.
Now lawyers have been joined by journalists and the All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) is to unfold its strategies within the next week to block Musharraf’s re-election.
Meanwhile, two women MNAs from the ruling PML (Q) have changed their loyalties. Dr. Firdaus Ashiq Awan switched her loyalty to PPP and another parliamentry secretary Shehzadi Tiwana left PML (Q) and joined PML (N). Both have submitted their resignations to their leadership.
In another major development, at the call of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), journalists from the print and electronic media observed a “Black Day” yesterday to register their strong protest against what has been termed here as the barbaric attitude of federal and Punjab Police on the day of submission of nomination papers for the presidential election on Saturday at the Election Commission.
Over 300 journalists led by president of the PFUJ, Mazhar Abbas, gathered at the same point in the capital yesterday.
