October 30, 2007	Tuesday	Shawwal 17, 1428

LAHORE, Oct 29: President Pervez Musharraf may seek re-election from the present or the new assemblies if the Supreme Court gives a verdict against him on the petitions challenging his nomination as a presidential candidate, says Attorney-General Malik Mohammad Qayyum.

Talking to Dawn on Monday, he said that before going for re-election the president would have to get removed --- through the parliament and by Nov 15 --- any legal or constitutional disqualification pointed out by the apex court.

This, he said, was the legal and constitutional position of the matter. But he was not in a position to say whether politically it would be possible for the president to follow this course.

He expressed the hope that the court would declare the Oct 6 presidential election valid in all respects.

The attorney-general said in case the Supreme Court held the election valid, then the stay order against the official notification of the presidential election would go, the Election Commission would notify the results and the president would take oath for the next term.

Another possibility is that the court would say the president was eligible to go for re-election but the assemblies were not competent to elect him. In that eventuality, the attorney-general said, the Oct 6 poll would become void and the entire process would have to be repeated after the general elections, due to be held by the middle of January.

Gen Musharraf, he explained, would have the right to become a candidate again and other people wanting to contest the election would file their nomination papers. The new assemblies would elect the president within 30 days of coming into existence, he said.

The worst case scenario would be if the apex court held that Gen Musharraf was not qualified to run for any legal or constitutional reason.

If the court pointed out some disqualification on legal grounds, the government would have to remove the same by amending the relevant law or enacting a new law.

Similarly, if the disqualification was on constitutional ground, the president would have to get a constitutional amendment passed by the middle of November, by which day the assemblies would complete their tenure and stand dissolved.