ISLAMABAD, Oct 1: New uncertainties created by the government and its opponents seemed surrounding the Oct 6 presidential election on Monday, just as the Election Commission said President Gen Pervez Musharraf and four other candidates had been left in the field after one withdrawal.
The presidential camp itself betrayed a feeling of uncertainty after only National Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain withdrew himself as one of its two covering candidates by the deadline of Monday noon, leaving Senate Chairman Mohammedmian Soomro in the field with a temptation to watch his stars in case General Musharraf is blocked by any of his alleged disqualifications.
Any ruling coalition candidate should be sure to win because of its unassailable but virtually captive majority in a dying electoral college of the two houses of parliament and four provincial assemblies.
But their mere presence in the field gives the three opposition contestants — Makhdoom Amin Fahim and Mrs Faryal Talpur of the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) and former Supreme Court judge Wajihuddin Ahmed as the candidate of the lawyers’ community — gives them a right to pursue their legal challenges to General Musharraf’s candidacy mainly because of his dual position as president and army chief.
After the Election Commission ruled out their objections during its scrutiny of the nomination papers on Saturday amid one of the worst days of police violence in the capital, Gen Musharraf’s opponents plan to approach the Supreme Court — in addition to challenges before the Sindh High Court — on Tuesday and even plead for staying the vote until a decision on their petitions.A stay order could upset the president’s scheme to get himself elected for what he considers a second term and opposition calls a constitutionally prohibited third term of office by the present assemblies, which are due to expire their five-year terms on November 15.
It also remains unclear whether the three opposition candidates, who entered the race basically to have a legal right to pose legal challenges to General Musharraf as his rivals, will remain in the field to the last or boycott the vote at a later stage if their challenges are rejected, although their names must remain on the ballot paper for not withdrawing by the deadline of Monday.
While the opposition parties grouped in the newly-formed All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) plan to resign from the National Assembly and the provincial assemblies on Tuesday and the PPP, the largest single opposition party, is to decide about resigning or abstaining from the vote in an Oct 3-4 meeting of its Central Executive Committee and the Federal Council in London, APDM plans to dissolve the North West Frontier Province assembly to further rob the presidential election of legitimacy became questionable.
The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) alliance of six Islamic parties, which is part of the APDM, had promised that its NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani would send a mandatory advice to the provincial governor on Oct 2 to dissolve the assembly.
But a notice for a no-confidence motion against the chief minister given by the provincial opposition on Monday put the dissolution plan on hold, strengthening doubts expressed earlier by critics that the alliance had probably deliberately given enough time to pro-Musharraf legislators to give a notice for a no-confidence move, which must be decided before the legislature can be dissolved.
The move hardly left enough time for the MMA to quash those doubts by calling an immediate meeting of the provincial assembly and then have a vote on the no-confidence move in a minimum of three days before the chief minister can make a request for dissolution, which the governor can delay for up to 48 hours after which the house must cease to exist.
But the MMA has come forward with a plan by summoning the provincial assembly on Tuesday for a vote of confidence in the chief minister in a move to invalidate the no-confidence motion, setting the stage for a possible legal battle in the Peshawar High Court.
EC NOTIFIES CANDIDATES: An Election Commission statement said Speaker Amir Hussain had “withdrawn his candidature by personally submitting a notice of withdrawal” to Chief Election Commissioner Qazi Mohammad Farooq at 11.55pm on Monday.
“Accordingly, the list of following validly nominated candidates for election to the office of president has been published by the Chief Election Commissioner/Returning Officer in the official gazette: (1) General Pervez Musharraf, (2) Mrs Faryal Talpur, (3) Mr Mohammedmian Soomro, (4) Makhdoom Mohammad Amin Fahim, (5) Mr Wajihuddin Ahmed.”
