ISLAMABAD, 12 July — Pakistan’s Supreme Court yesterday upheld President Pervez Musharraf’s ban on non-university graduates from contesting elections, effectively freezing 99 percent of Pakistanis out of the country’s first general elections in three years. “For reasons to be recorded later, the bench has unanimously dismissed these petitions,” said an order by Chief Justice Sheikh Riaz Ahmed.
The court ruling comes one day after Musharraf, himself a graduate of Pakistan’s prestigious Command and Staff College, set a date of Oct. 10 for elections to the national and four provincial parliaments. The court challenge was mounted by a pro-Musharraf faction of the divided Pakistan Muslim League known as PML-Q, which will see 25 of its leaders ruled out of the race.
The June 22 decree states that “a person shall not be qualified to be elected or chosen as a member of Parliament or a Provincial Assembly unless he is at least a graduate possessing a bachelor degree in any discipline”.
Dozens of powerful rural tribal leaders will be barred from contesting parliamentary elections in Pakistan in October after the Supreme Court upheld a decree requiring candidates to have a university degree. “By unanimous decision, reasons to be recorded later, the petitions are dismissed,” the Supreme Court, the highest court in the country, said in response to a challenge against the decree.
The government introduced the new law last month, but at least three political parties challenged it. Critics say the law will ensure power stays in the hands of a privileged elite and, with literacy levels of just 50.5 percent, it was discriminatory.
The law means a number of active politicians will be disqualified from standing in the elections — including former Foreign Minister Gohar Ayub, who was also speaker of the lower house. “Yes, I am hit ... and not only me but quite a number of people will be hit by it,” he told reporters.
Others include the former ambassador to the United States, Abida Hussain, and the former minister for Kashmir affairs, retired army Gen. Abdul Majid Malik. The changes in election rules were part of a series of steps taken by Musharraf in the last two weeks that critics say are strengthening his grip on power.
PML-Q was remarkably accepting the decision, despite its secretary-general and vice president being among its 25 leaders now barred from the polls. “We are bound to lose some key party leaders who do not fulfill the requirement, but we don’t want to sound negative against the country’s judiciary,” said PML-Q spokesman Muhammad Azeem Chaudhary. “We reserve the right to reverse this decision if we win and form the government after October elections.”
