By Muhammad Najeeb, IANS
Islamabad : Pakistan will hold presidential elections Oct 6 – a race that President Pervez Musharraf is expected to win even as the opposition has taken the battle to the Supreme Court.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Thursday announced the schedule for presidential elections under which voting will take place Oct 6.
This is the first time in the country’s history that the same parliament will elect a president twice on completion of the president’s term.
The present parliament was formed in November 2002 and will complete its five-year-term in November this year. The same parliament had elected Pervez Musharraf as president in November 2002 and his five-year-term ends Nov 15 this year.
The anti-Musharraf parties are livid.
“The parliament, which is elected for five years, cannot elect a president for 10 years,” Qazi Hussain Ahmed, opposition leader and chief of Jamaat-e-Islami, told reporters outside the Supreme Court.
The court is currently hearing six identical petitions against Musharraf for holding two offices – the presidency and the chief of army staff.
Musharraf has said he will quit as army chief after his election.
“The president will be taking oath as a civilian president,” Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, chief of the ruling party, had said Wednesday. He said that once Musharraf was elected as president, “there would be complete civilian rule in the country”.
Musharraf came to power in October 1999 after overthrowing the elected government of then prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who was one year later sent into exile to Saudi Arabia. Sharif attempted to return to the country Sep 10 but was again sent into forced exile there.
Kanwar M. Dilshad, the Election Commission secretary, said that voting for presidential elections would be held in all the four provincial assemblies and the federal parliament from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct 6.
He told reporters that nomination papers for the president’s office can be filed from Sep 27 and the final list of candidates would be displayed Oct 1.
According to the constitution, a total of 1,170 members of the national assembly, senate and the four provincial assemblies can vote in the presidential election.
The national assembly has 342 members, the senate 100, Punjab 371, Sindh 168, Balochistan 65 and the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) has 124 members.
The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam (PML-Q) has a clear majority in the federal parliament (senate and national assembly) and the provincial assemblies of Punjab and Sindh. It lacks majority in Balochistan and is in opposition in NWFP.
The total number though is in favour of the ruling party, which has declared Musharraf its candidate.
To make the process more legitimate, Musharraf is making desperate attempts to have a power-sharing deal with former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, who is expected to end her self-exile and return to Pakistan Oct 18.
According to unconfirmed reports, Musharraf is also holding talks with the Mutahidda Majlis-e-Amal religious alliance, which is in power in NWFP and rules in Balochistan along with the PML-Q.