ISLAMABAD, Sept 20: The All Parties Democratic Movement has described the announcement of the presidential election schedule ahead of a Supreme Court decision on petitions challenging the holding of two offices by Gen Pervez Musharraf, as a step to facilitate the president’s re-election in uniform.

Talking to journalists after a meeting with Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon here on Thursday, Pakistan Muslim League-N leader Ahsan Iqbal said that members of the APDM would resign en masse from parliament in protest against Gen Musharraf’s nomination.

He said the alliance would hold a meeting on Friday to chalk out a plan to block Gen Musharraf’s election from the present assemblies. He said the APDM parties had already decided to resign en bloc from assemblies if the Election Commission accepted the nomination papers of Gen Musharraf.

He said the APDM was opposed to the presidential election from the current assemblies and considered it an unconstitutional step on the part of the ECP. “It is like stealing elections from the new parliament. The presidential election from the current assemblies whose mandate has almost expired is unconstitutional, unethical and against democratic norms,” he added.

People’s Party Parliamentarians secretary-general Jehangir Badr said the announcement of the poll schedule before the court decision was dangerous for democracy and the Constitution. This is tantamount to an attempt to impose Gen Musharraf on the country for another five years.

He said a president in military uniform was not acceptable to the PPP, adding that it might also consider resigning from assemblies.

Leader of Opposition in Senate Mian Raza Rabbani said the Chief Election Commissioner had issued the schedule in ‘indecent haste’ like he had done while amending the rules for presidential elections. “The CEC should have waited for the Supreme Court judgment,” he added.

PML-N chairman Raja Zafarul Haq claimed that there was consensus among opposition parties to block Gen Musharraf’s election for a second term and they would chalk out their strategy in a couple of days. He said the PPP had also realised the dangers from perpetuation of dictatorship and it was likely to join the APDM in the next round of struggle.

He said workers of his party would participate in the demonstration to be held by the Jamaat-i-Islami outside the Supreme Court on Sept 21 in protest against the holding of two offices by the president.

He said lawyers affiliated to his party would file a fresh application in the Supreme Court on Friday to seek a stay order against the presidential elections.

Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal president Qazi Hussain Ahmed said the APDM would launch a struggle if the EC accepted the nomination papers of Gen Musharraf.

He said opposition parties believed that re-election of Gen Musharraf when the electoral college (assemblies) had completed its parliamentary life was unconstitutional and illegal.

Mr Ahmed said ‘forces’ trying to impose Gen Musharraf on the nation for another five years were doing no good to the nation and they would be accountable to the nation.

MMA’s Parliamentary Leader in the National Assembly Liaquat Baloch said the APDM would take every step, including resignations from assemblies, to make the electoral college ineffective and block Gen Musharraf’s re-election in uniform.

He said that after the computerised voter registration process, the amendment to the rules governing presidential election was another controversial decision by the Election Commission. And now, he added, the commission had ignored the Supreme Court proceedings while announcing the poll schedule.

Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf chairman Imran Khan said the schedule would be challenged in the Supreme Court.

Terming the announcement illegal and unconstitutional, he said such steps could be taken only in Pakistan where an army general had been given the right to contest presidential elections.

“General Musharraf is a dictator who usurped power and he has no right to participate in the presidential elections.”