ISLAMABAD, Nov 24: The Election Commission on Saturday notified the result of the Oct 6 presidential polls, removing the last hurdle for Gen Pervez Musharraf to becoming a civilian head of the state.
The Chief Election Commissioner issued the notification after receiving a copy of the orders passed by the post-PCO bench of the Supreme Court rejecting petitions that questioned legality of Gen Musharraf’s candidature for the coveted office.
The Election Commission officials have been directed to issue a formal notification of presidential election stayed by a pre-PCO full bench of the Supreme Court.
The apex court had rejected the plea for putting off the polls till the final disposal of the case, but had directed the Election Commission not to issue a final notification of the election results.
According to unofficial results, Gen Musharraf had won the election securing 98 per cent of the votes.
Election Commission Secretary Kanwar Dilshad said the notification declaring Gen Musharraf as the returned candidate had been sent to the cabinet secretary.
An official of the Election Commission said now it was for the government to finally notify Gen Pervez Musharraf as the president.
A senior official of the cabinet division, however, said it was not the job of the cabinet division to issue such a notification and said the cabinet division would make arrangements for the oath-taking ceremony and issue a notification after Gen Musharraf took the oath as president.Although the time-table given by the apex court binds Gen Musharraf to hang up his uniform by Dec 31, there was no official announcement as yet when he was going to doff his uniform.
Sources said that Gen Musharraf would take oath as civilian president in the next few days and most probably on Nov 29 after the removal of all legal hitches.
Commenting on the issuing of notification by the Election Commission, Justice Wajihuddin Ahmed said the decision would be challenged after the restoration of the pre-PCO judiciary.
He said the petition challenging the qualification of Gen Musharraf as the president had been filed under the Constitution which had illegally been held in abeyance.
He said that even if it was assumed that Gen Musharraf was qualified to contest polls for the office of the president, his term in office had expired on Nov 15 and the PCO judges had no constitutional or legal authority to give him time till Dec 1 to retain his military uniform.
