RAWALPINDI, Oct 3: Justice (retd) Wajihuddin Ahmed has asked the chief justice to form a full Supreme Court bench to hear the petitions challenging Gen Pervez Musharraf’s nomination as presidential candidate.
Addressing a gathering of lawyers on the premises of the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA), Mr Ahmed said that any verdict of the existing Supreme Court bench would be doubtful as the judges who voted in favour of Gen Musharraf in a recent case were sitting on the same bench.
Justice Sardar Raza Khan should not have opted out of the bench, he added.
He lambasted politicians for overlooking an amendment in the rules under Article 63 of the Constitution allowing Gen Musharraf to file his candidature for re-election in uniform from the same assemblies. It was the first failure of democratic forces on the presidential election front, he observed.
The second defeat was the verdict of a nine-member bench terming the petitions against dual offices non-maintainable after hearing the case for 14 days. The third defeat came on September 29 when despite objections, the Election Commission accepted the nomination papers of Gen Musharraf and overruled the objections of other candidates. Justice Ahmed said he was anticipating yet another setback for the struggling forces of democracy since the newly-constituted Supreme Court bench hearing the petitions against presidential elections comprised of judges who were not above board.
Why was Justice Shakir Ullah Jan sent to the Peshawar bench of the apex court? How important was the work of Justice Rana Bhagwan Das, who had left for France ignoring the very important petitions? and why did Justice Raza Ahmed Khan opt not to sit in the bench, he asked.
The sitting president was not elected according to the Constitution rather he was elected under the infamous Legal Framework Order (LFO) and his re-election in uniform from the same assemblies would be a glaring violation of the Constitution, he maintained.
He deplored that October 6 had been decided as the date for re-election of Gen Musharraf, whom he alleged, was using the state exchequer and machinery to get himself re-elected. On one side, the general was using all state resources and forces at his disposal and on the other side, the rest of the presidential candidates had no direct access to the electoral college. He said that even a dictator like Ayub Khan had allowed Fatima Jinnah to address the BD members
He said if the president could contest the polls under Article 63 of the Constitution, then every insane, convict and adjudged insolvent could also go for the seat of the president. The only way to make the presidential election transparent was to constitute a full court bench of the apex court to hear the petitions challenging the orders of EC, he added.
