October 1, 2007	Monday	Ramazan 18, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Sept 30: The government is reported to have decided not to withdraw the nomination papers of Senate Chairman Muhammadmian Soomro or National Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain, both cover candidates for Gen Pervez Musharraf in the presidential race.

Informed sources said that as a safety measure, the cover candidates would announce their retirement one day before the presidential election.

“The government cannot take any risk at this stage when everything is still blurred and the Supreme Court judgment in the dual-office case has not cleared the way for Gen Musharraf. Therefore, the government will use its cards with extreme care,” the sources said.

The president’s strategists had carefully selected the two cover candidates, keeping in view their loyalty to the president over the past eight years, the sources said.

They had even been preferred over PML president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz whose names had also been considered, at some stage, the sources said.

The sources said that the government was conscious of the fact that the candidature of Gen Musharraf in uniform could be challenged in the Supreme Court and, therefore, it decided not to withdraw candidatures of the two candidates.

Under the law, a candidate may announce his retirement from the contest one day before polling and cover candidates are likely to use this option. Constitutional experts say that if a stay order is granted by the Supreme Court, the government has three options -- it may dissolve the National Assembly, impose emergency or extend the tenure of assemblies.

The government also faces the challenge of possible dissolution of the NWFP assembly on the advice of Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani.

The sources said that after considering all options, lawmakers of the PML-Q and PPP (Sherpao) in the NWFP assembly had decided to file a petition in the Peshawar High Court to pre-empt the dissolution.

Legal experts believe that the petition might lead to a delay in the presidential election because if the PHC provides relief to the opposition in the NWFP assembly, the MMA may move the Supreme Court to get it annulled.