Islamabad, Sep 27 (IANS) A “constitutional firewall” bars General Pervez Musharraf from seeking re-election to the presidency while he is still the Army Chief, Pakistan’s Supreme Court has been told during a hearing in a case challenging the military chief holding two offices.
Musharraf is seeking a second term as president in the elections due Oct 6, but a top lawyer appointed amicus curiae (friend of the court) warned on Wednesday that even the amended constitution did not allow his holding two posts simultaneously.
Musharraf is expected to file his nomination papers shortly. But the amicus curiae Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan warned that the parliamentarians who propose and second the nomination of an army chief for the presidential election are liable to 10 years in prison under the penal code.
Ahsan told a nine-member Supreme Court (SC) bench that no army officer could run for the office of president, since it was “political in nature”.
The bench, hearing petitions challenging General Pervez Musharraf’s position as president and army chief and his eligibility to be a candidate in the next presidential election, is expected to deliver its verdict Thursday.
Sharifuddin Pirzada, another legal luminary and state counsel, told the court that the petitions challenging Musharraf’s re-election bid were not maintainable.
Justice Rana Bhagwandas, who heads the bench, however said: “In my personal view, the petitions are maintainable because they involve a matter of public significance and national importance.”
Ahsan said there was a constitutional “firewall” around the chief of army staff (COAS), even under the amended constitution, Daily Times reported Thursday.
He submitted that the government counsel had argued that impediments in the way of the president becoming army chief had been removed through the 17th Amendment and the two-offices bill, but “impediments” in the way of the COAS becoming president were still in place.
According to the two-offices bill, the president can stand for re-election but the COAS cannot, he said.
He questioned how a presidential candidate could assume the office after winning the election when he was not qualified for the post at the time of submission of nomination papers.
“Can a non-Muslim file valid nomination papers promising to convert to Islam if elected? Can the chief election commissioner, for that matter, stand for election on a promise that he would resign from government service if elected?” Ahsan asked.
He said the president had to perform some political functions according to articles 48(2), 48(6), 58(2b), 90(2a)(5), 112(2) and 56(b) of the constitution. Hence, he said, the president’s office was political in nature though the president must be non-partisan.
He submitted that President Musharraf had secured constitutional and legal cover to continue with the two offices till Nov 15, but he was not qualified to run for another term as president.
S.M. Zafar, another friend of the court, contended that the president should step down as COAS immediately after Oct 6, if re-elected. He submitted that the two-offices bill had a limited life and it would become redundant when a new president was elected.
He requested the court to specify in its judgement a date on which the president must take off his uniform, rather than leaving it to the statement submitted by Pirzada, which said Gen Musharraf would doff his uniform, if re-elected, before he took oath as president for another term.
Zafar said the court’s decision should not be influenced by the doctrine of necessity and should take the country towards democracy and civil rule. Military rulers in Pakistan have repeatedly invoked this doctrine in the past to justify their actions.