By Muhammad Najeeb,IANS
Islamabad, Nov 21 (IANS) President General Pervez Musharraf is this weekend set to quit as army chief and take oath as president for the next five-year term, officials said Wednesday.
Musharraf chaired an unannounced meeting which took some crucial decisions, including his oath as president for the next five-year term, an official said.
“The decisions related to Musharraf’s quitting the army post, taking oath as president for the next term, code of conduct during elections, and lifting restrictions on media,” the official privy to the meeting told IANS on condition of anonymity.
Musharraf reached Islamabad Wednesday morning. He was scheduled to return from Saudi Arabia Thursday morning but “cut short his visit due to some developments” back at home, the official said.
The official, refusing to give more details, said that Musharraf was confident of taking oath of office in “a couple of days”.
He said that the president held “extensive” meetings with King Abdullah and discussed Pakistan’s efforts at curbing terrorism.
The official said no meeting was held with exiled former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who lives in Saudi Arabia. “This is wrong to say that president had gone there for a meeting with Sharif…there was no such plan,” he said.
However, an informed official said that Musharraf met Sharif at the King’s Palace where they discussed the political situation. He said under a new agreement Sharif would be allowed to come back to Pakistan soon after the elections while his party would be allowed to contest the elections “freely”.
The official said that under the new understanding reached, Sharif would contest the forthcoming elections in absentia.
Earlier, Attorney General Malik Abdul Qayyum said Musharraf was set to quit as army chief and become a civilian president at the weekend.
“The Supreme Court is likely to pass an order on a petition against Musharraf’s re-lection by Friday and he will take oath of the office very next day,” Qayyum told IANS.
When asked if the president would be quitting as army chief before taking oath for the next term, the attorney general said, “He has promised to do so.”
Five of the six petitions challenging Musharraf’s re-election as the president were dismissed by the Supreme Court this week after the petitioners said they had lost confidence in the court and were withdrawing their petitions.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court adjourned the hearing on the sixth petition till Thursday.
“If the Supreme Court lifts the stay order against his re-election, then President Musharraf is likely to take the oath as a civilian president by Saturday or Sunday,” Qayyum said.
“Once the court decides, the notification (of his victory) can be issued in a day or two and then he should take the oath (of office) this weekend.”
Meanwhile, Chief Election Commissioner Qazi Muhammad Farooq has asked the government to release all those political prisoners immediately who want to take part in the general elections.
The CEC said in a statement that, according to law, every candidate would have to personally appear before the concerned returning officer to submit his/her nomination papers.
It also asked the political parties to submit the candidates’ names for the women’s and minority seats by Nov 24.
According to statement, there are 60 seats for women in the National Assembly and 10 seats for the minorities.
In Pakistan, there are 188 seats for women in the national and provincial assemblies and 33 seats for non-Muslims. However, women and non-Muslims can also contest the general seats.
The reserved seats for women and non-Muslims are distributed among the political parties on proportional representation against the total number of seats they win in the general elections. But every party is required to give a list in a priority order of their women and non-Muslim candidates.