November 10, 2007	Saturday	Shawwal 28, 1428

LAHORE, Nov 9: Will President Gen Pervez Musharraf take off his uniform on or before Nov 15, as being demanded by PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto and other opposition leaders?

Attorney General Malik Mohammad Qayyum and Gen Musharraf’s challenger in the presidential election Justice (retd) Wajihuddin Ahmed have different assessments on the subject.

While the former thinks that the matter may linger on for some time, the latter is of the view that the general would take the oath for another term during the next few days, hanging up his uniform.

PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto has consistently been calling upon Gen Musharraf to sever his affiliation with the army by the middle of the current month.

Mr Qayyum told Dawn on Friday that since the composition of the bench hearing the petitions had changed as a result of the enforcement of the Provisional Constitution Order, the matter had gone back to square one. Now, he said, the government would first appoint more judges to the Supreme Court to enable the chief justice to constitute an 11-member bench, equal to the one that dealt with these petitions before Nov 3.

According to him, the government could take about a week to make more appointments.

Then, he said, the hearing would start afresh and nobody could say how long the counsel for the petitioners would take to complete their arguments.

The attorney-general said it was not clear whether Aitzaz Ahsan and other lawyers of the petitioners would appear before the court.

Many lawyers have been detained since Nov 3 and as they are also opposed to the PCO, it is unlikely for them to appear before the bench they don’t recognise as constitutionally constituted.

Justice (retd) Wajihuddin said he would not be pursuing his petition as the Supreme Court which was earlier hearing it had ceased to exist after the promulgation of the PCO.

He said he had instructed his advocate-on-record to tell the “new entity” that his case could not be heard by them.

He would just read out the petition, but would not offer any arguments on merit as such a course would amount to according recognition to an entirely unconstitutional act of Gen Musharraf.

This, he said, would make it possible for the government to seek waiver of the stay order against the official notification of the presidential election.

This done, Gen Musharraf would take the oath for another term, hanging up his uniform.

Justice Wajih said he would raise the matter again after the restoration of the Constitution.