November 17, 2002	Sunday	Ramazan 11, 1423

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

ISLAMABAD, Nov 16: The oath on Saturday “under the mixture of 1973 Constitution and the Legal Framework Order” is the third oath taken by Gen Pervez Musharraf in his life.

Stating this in a statement here Saturday, a spokesman for Pakistan People’s Party, Farhatullah Babar, said: “Only God knows how many more oath of office the General contemplates taking and how many more oath will satisfy his ambitions for power. And going by his past record of violating his own oath only God knows whether the General will even abide by the oath he took today.

“The General may pride himself in completing a hat trick of oath-taking. He may even be congratulated by the King’s Party which the regime helped create through gerrymandering and horse trading. But in doing so, democracy and the democratic principles have been shamed as never before.

“The PPP reiterates the constitutional position that the president can neither be elected through referendum nor a serving government servant is eligible to contest election to office of president until two years have passed to his retirement from service.

“The oath taken by Gen Musharraf as president for any five years is against the provisions of the Constitution and the norms of morality which the party condemns.

“Some thirty-five years ago, the general took oath as commissioned officer of the Pakistan army to uphold and protect the Constitution. In 1999, violating his oath, Gen Musharraf as Army Chief suspended that very Constitution which he had sworn to protect and uphold. He also gave his own Constitution called the Provisional Constitutional Order.

“In the year 2001, the General threw out of presidency the constitutionally elected President Rafiq Tarar and got himself administered oath yet again, this time as president under the Provisional Constitution Order,” the PPP spokesman said.