LAHORE, Sept 5: The Constitution’s Article 58(2B), restored by President Gen Pervez Musharraf, will hang over future parliaments like a sword of Damocles.

Pakistan Lawyers Forum Counsel A. K. Dogar made this statement while reading excerpts from newspapers and magazines as part of his arguments on a writ petition challenging the validity of LFO before Justice M. Javed Buttar of the Lahore High Court here on Thursday.

He submitted that different presidents had dissolved the parliament five times while exercising the powers vested in their person under Article 58(2B). Once a president dissolved a government, he ensured that it would not return to power in subsequent general elections, he added.

He observed that every general coming to power in Pakistan had tried to prepare his own constitution to create a manoeuvrable democracy. The experiment of constitutional engineering, undertaken time and again, had always failed.

He recalled that the parliament had struck down Article 58(2B) unanimously during the tenure of former prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif. He said all powers were vested in the parliament in a democratic system, but had been taken away by President Musharraf, “who wanted to rule like a king”. The parliamentary system has its own system of checks and balances, but there is no check on the powers of the president, he added.

He remarked that President Gen Pervez Musharraf enjoyed powers that even US President George W. Bush did not have. President Bush could not take a decision to attack Iraq unilaterally, but President Musharraf could take any decision.

The counsel submitted that President Musharraf wanted a handpicked parliament, because a parliament formed through fair elections would strike down the amendments made by him in the constitution. The manner in which the referendum was conducted had shown as to how the elections would be held, he added.

Mr Dogar read excerpts from statements of politicians, lawyers and other leaders of public opinion in support of his arguments that the people had not accepted the Supreme Court decision to allow President Musharraf to amend the constitution.

He will continue his arguments on Friday.