By Muhammad Najeeb, IANS
Islamabad : The opposition All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) Saturday evening reaffirmed its decision to resign from the national and provincial assemblies next week to block President Pervez Musharraf’s bid at re-election even as hundreds of lawyers protesting his candidature clashed with police leaving more than 30 injured.
The APDM reaffirmed its decision taken on Thursday at a meeting in Rawalpindi at the residence of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan. The APDM consists of 32 political parties and was formed in June at an All Parties Conference called by former prime minister and PML-N leader Mian Nawaz Sharif.
After the meeting, Khan said that 84 opposition members of the national assembly and 152 of the provincial assemblies had already handed over their resignations to their respective party heads. “These resignations would be given to the speakers of the national and respective provincial assemblies on Tuesday (Oct 2),” said Khan.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission Saturday cleared Musharraf’s candidature for the presidential election along with five other candidates.
Riot police baton charged hundreds of lawyers who wanted to enter Pakistan Election Commission’s office where presidential nomination papers were being scrutinised.
The government blocked TV transmission of independent news channels, particularly in Islamabad, to prevent them from airing live coverage of the demonstrations. The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), a media watchdog, issued orders not to air independent news channels till further orders, according to cable operators here.
“We have been asked to immediately close down all other news channels including ARY, AAJ, GEO, DAWN and others,” a leading cable operator in Islamabad told IANS. According to the PEMRA order, state-run Pakistan Television (PTV) would be the only news channel available on air.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and several other federal ministers arrived at the poll panel office to respond to the objections to Musharraf’s eligibility for running for the presidential vote on Oct 6.
The representatives of Pakistan Peoples Party candidate and lawyers boycotted the proceedings and walked out of the room where they were meeting the Chief Election Commission (CEC).
CEC, Qazi Farooq, dismissed all objections against Musharraf raised by the lawyers and cleared him and five other candidates, including Makhdoom Amin Fahim from opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and a retired judge, Wajihuddin Ahmed for the presidential election.
Two other candidates whose nomination papers were also cleared include Muhammadmian Soomro and Faryal Talpur. Soomro, senate chairman, is Musharraf’s covering candidate while Talpur covers the PPP candidate.
The Election Commission will publish the final list of presidential candidates Oct 1.
Police used force to quell lawyers who were protesting Musharraf’s candidacy and used tear-gas shells to disperse the crowd of hundreds chanting anti-Musharraf slogans, leaving over 30 lawyers injured, while about 200 lawyers and political activists were arrested.
Supreme Court Bar Association president Munir A. Malik, who spearheads the campaign against Musharraf, said that lawyers had filed objections to Musharraf’s candidature but the CEC cleared the papers without listening to them.
He pointed out that Musharraf had not submitted his Bachelor’s degree with the nomination papers. According to the 2002 presidential order only graduates can contest for parliament.
The lawyers have also alleged that Musharraf was a “liar” and hence stood disqualified for the president’s office.
Malik said that Musharraf in a televised addressed had committed that he would doff the army uniform in December 2004 but he later refused and continued to hold two offices.
On Friday, six members of a panel of nine senior judges threw out petitions filed by the opposition seeking to obstruct Musharraf’s candidacy on constitutional grounds.
Musharraf, who came to power in a 1999 coup, has said he will shed his uniform by Nov 15 if he receives a further mandate from parliament and the national assemblies.
Islamabad also witnessed clashes between journalists and cops in which 15 media personnel were injured as policemen beat them with sticks.
The journalists were injured when policemen chased them with sticks as they were protesting about an accident in which their colleague was knocked down by Punjab Chief Minister Pervez Elahi’s vehicle.
Altaf Bhatti of daily Khabrain was severely hurt when his leg was crushed under the wheels of Elahi’s limo outside the election commission building.
While the media personnel were protesting, “some of the senior journalists were tracked by the police and beaten up”, said Huma Ali.
At the APDM meeting it was also decided to dissolve the provincial assembly in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) on Oct 2, said Khan. Mutahidda Majisl-e-Amal (MMA), a religious parties group in APDM, is ruling the province.
Analysts say that dissolution of one of the four provincial assemblies will render the Electoral College for presidential polls incomplete hence making the forthcoming elections unconstitutional. However, some differ with it saying it will make no difference to Musharraf’s elections.
The parliament (senate and national assembly) and four provincial assemblies make up the Electoral College for the presidential elections and 1,072 members, the total strength of these houses, vote in the poll for the country’s top office of president.