ISLAMABAD, 10 October 2007 — A Pakistan Supreme Court bench that will rule on the legality of President Pervez Musharraf’s overwhelming election victory was expanded yesterday, officials said.
The number of judges to hear challenges from next week on the validity of the controversial election was expanded to 11, officials said, possibly to reduce the risk of a tied decision.
“Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has enlarged the ten-member bench by adding one more judge,” the court’s spokesman Arshad Munir told AFP.
Gen. Musharraf won the presidential election on Oct. 6, but the official notification would be announced after Oct. 17 with the Supreme Court’s permission.
The court decided last week that Musharraf could stand in Oct. 6 election which he won in a landslide.
But the court ordered that the result cannot be validated and declared official until it resolves the challenges, effectively leaving a sword hanging over Musharraf’s head.
The top court panel headed by Justice Javed Iqbal now comprises Justice Javed Buttar, Justice Chaudhry Ijaz Ahmad, Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday, Justice Nawaz Abbasi, Justice Faqir Muhammad Khokhar, Justice Fayyaz Ahmad Raja, Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza Khan, Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jilani, Justice Syed Jamshed Ali and Justice Ghulam Rabbani.
This is third time the Supreme Court bench was modified in view of the significance of the petitions.
The petitions were filed by Musharraf’s two rivals in the election, former Supreme Court judge Wajihuddin Ahmad and Makhdoom Amin Fahim, the vice chairman of former Premier Benazir Bhutto’s party.
Musharraf crushed both in the election, conducted by the national Parliament and provincial assemblies, after it was boycotted by almost the entire opposition.
Meanwhile, officials said the court will also hear a challenge against the deportation of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on the same day.
“The chief justice has constituted a seven-member bench which will hear that appeal,” Munir said, adding that Chaudhry will lead the bench.
The petition was filed by officials from Sharif’s party after Musharraf expelled the ex-premier hours after his return from exile in September.
Harlem Ulman, a political analyst and adviser to two Washington think tanks commenting on Pakistan’s political situation told a Canadian TV network, “If the Supreme Court decides against Gen. Musharraf when it resumes hearing on Oct. 17, I think there is going to be martial law and God knows what’s going to happen to the country.”
He was of the view that the best option for Musharraf is to share power with Benazir Bhutto and take a back seat in politics.
Similar views were expressed by Federal Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad. “There are much higher stakes than personal issues. It’s high time Pakistanis thought of national unity,” he said. He was also of the opinion that martial law might be imposed in case the court declares the presidential election invalid.
Music Shop Bombed
A powerful bomb ripped through a CD and video shop in northwestern Pakistan yesterday, wounding at least 12 people, police said.
Police suspect militants planted the bomb that wrecked the shop in a crowded commercial area of Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan. Eight nearby shops were damaged. Some of the injured were in critical condition.
“We suspect the involvement of those people who in recent months had sent letters to the CD and video shops, warning them to shut their businesses, saying it is against Islam,” city police chief Abdul Majid Marwat told reporters at scene of the blast.
