August 31, 2008	Sunday	Sha'aban 28, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Aug 30: The Election Commission on Saturday dismissed a petition seeking postponement of the presidential elections.

In his order, Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Qazi Mohammad Farooq observed that it had been firmly settled that the chairman Senate, while acting as the president, was not required to take oath prescribed for the office of the president and his previous oath was sufficient for performing functions as acting president.

The president of the Save Judiciary Movement, Hashmat Habib, had contended that the proposed election would be void because of incomplete electoral college as under Article 50 of the Constitution, parliament consisted of the president, the National Assembly and the Senate. But, he said, currently there was no president because Pervez Musharraf had resigned and the acting president had not taken the oath prescribed for the office.

He said members of parliament “cannot act as proposers and seconders for a presidential candidate” unless the parliament’s quorum was complete.

Similarly, he said, the electoral college would remain incomplete until the acting president took oath provided for the president to be elected under Article 41(3).

Terming the petition misconceived, the CEC said that its contentions had no merit.

He cited a judgment given in 1993 in the Syed Ali Raza Asad Abadi vs. Wasim Sajjad case, the then chairman Senate, in which it was held that the Senate chairman was the acting president in accordance with the mandate of Article 49(1) of the 1973 Constitution.

He also cited the judgment in the Syed Zafar Ali Shah vs. the federal government case and another (1994 CLC 5) in which it was held: “Our Constitution did not contemplate a separate fresh oath … for the office of president by the chairman of the Senate or the speaker of the National Assembly, as the case may be, on being called upon to act as or perform the functions of the president on account of the occurrence of a vacancy in the office of the president instead. It already binds them in the prescribed oath that when they were called upon to act or perform the functions of the president, they shall discharge their respective oaths already taken by them.”

FINAL CANDIDATES: Meanwhile, only three candidates in the contest for the office of the president, including Asif Ali Zardari (PPP), Mushahid Hussain Sayed (PML-Q) and Justice (retd) Mohammad Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui (PML-N) , remained in the field after Faryal Talpur and Roedad Khan, the covering candidates for PPP and PML-N candidates, respectively, withdrew their nomination papers.

Election Commission Secretary Kanwar Mohammad Dilshad informed the validly nominated candidates that they could retire from the election by serving a duly signed notice not later than three days before the polling day.