October 1, 2007	Monday	Ramazan 18, 1428

KARACHI, Sept 30: Justice (retd) Wajihuddin Ahmad has said that a review petition will be filed in the Supreme Court against the acceptance of President General Pervez Musharraf’s candidature for re-election.

Justice Ahmad, who is the presidential candidate of the lawyers’ community, was speaking at the Karachi Press Club on Sunday afternoon. Later, he briefly spoke to different TV news channels.

Justice Ahmad was accompanied by Justice Rashid A. Razvi, Sindh High Court Bar Association President Abrar Hasan and Karachi Bar Association President Javed Iftikhar Qazi.

He had come to express solidarity with journalists, who were attacked by the police while they were performing their duty on the occasion of the scrutiny of presidential candidates near the office of the Election Commission in Islamabad on Saturday.

He condemned the use of brute force by police and personnel of the law-enforcement agencies in civil dress against peaceful lawyers and journalists and said the government, which claimed giving freedom to the press, had a record of 21 murdered journalists and lawyers during its tenure. “The present rulers have trampled the sanctity of the Supreme Court and the Constitution,” Justice Ahmad said.

Decision or indecision?

He said the majority decision by six judges on the petition of Qazi Hussain Ahmad and Imran Khan was not a decision but a simple way out to escape a decision. “The nation is awaiting their detailed decision to know the basis on which they had termed the petitions not maintainable,” he said.

He said the six judges should have considered what effect the Sept 28 decision would have on the 160 million people of the country.

Justice Ahmad said the present assemblies were not entitled to re-elect Gen Musharraf for another term of five years.
He said that he was not in the contest to win but to “block a dictator from becoming president unconstitutionally.”

Justice Ahmad was optimistic that in the constitutional and legal battle, ultimately the truth would emerge victorious and the objective of maintaining the supremacy of the Constitution would be achieved.

In reply to a question he said that the country could only pull itself out of the current crisis by pursuing the true spirit of the Constitution.

He said that in the 1964 presidential election, when Gen Ayub Khan faced off against Ms Fatimah Jinnah, the then chief election commissioner G. Moinuddin had declared Ayub Khan the winner. But now, 160 million people would not allow “any such conspiracy to succeed.”

He expressed optimism that there were conscientious legislators in the Pakistan Muslim League-Q who would cast their votes according to their conscience.

Earlier, Justice Rashid A. Razvi said that the lawyers’ movement, which started on March 9 for the supremacy of the Constitution and the rule of law in the country, did not reach its climax on July 20 when Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry was restored; in fact, he said, it was the beginning of a long-drawn legal battle between the forces of darkness and democracy.