By Muhammad Najeeb, IANS
Islamabad : Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf, whose term as president expired Thursday, will continue in office until the next person takes oath, Information Minister Tariq Azim said here Thursday.
“This is the common sense that incumbent (sic) will continue until the new man steps in,” Azim told reporters.
Musharraf has said in various interviews that he would continue as president and take oath of office after the Supreme Court ruling in the cases challenging his candidature as president.
Musharraf, who took over power after overthrowing the elected government of prime minister Nawaz Sharif in October 1999, got himself elected from the outgoing assemblies Oct 6 with a huge margin. But his rival candidates challenged his candidature in the Supreme Court.
The apex court allowed the poll to be held as scheduled but asked the Election Commission to withhold the notification until it decides on his candidature.
The court was nearing a decision when Musharraf imposed emergency on Nov 3 and terminated all judges of the superior courts and asked them to take fresh oath. More than 65 out of 98 judges refused allegiance to the military dictator and did not take oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO).
The newly formed Supreme Court is now scheduled to take up the case from where the previous court left it and is widely speculated to rule in favour of Musharraf.
“The judges, who have taken oath under PCO, cannot decide against the president even if they want to do so,” a senior lawyer Saifullah Khan told IANS.
“I’ll take oath once the case is decided,” state-run Pakistan Television quoted Musharraf as saying.
Musharraf who is under tremendous pressure from the international community to doff his military uniform said that he may quit the army chief’s office by the end of this month.
However, he said he would hold elections under the emergency. “The only fair election held in Pakistan was in 1971 and that was under the military rule and under the emergency,” Musharraf said in an interview with SKY News justifying his continuation of emergency.