LAHORE, March 14: If the new parliament adopts a resolution declaring that the Nov 3 actions are not part of the Constitution, President Musharraf will be left with no option but to have the much-criticised steps validated by a two-thirds majority of the National Assembly and the Senate or face the consequences for violating the basic law, a former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association said here on Friday.

Advocate Akram Sheikh said while talking to Dawn that since the PPP, the PML-N and the Awami National Party had joined hands to form a coalition, there was no possibility of President Musharraf being able to have his admittedly extra-constitutional steps validated. Therefore, he said, the president would have to negotiate a safe exit to escape the consequences of trampling the Constitution.

He said President Musharraf could stay in office only with the support of the parties that had been voted to power. He said if these parties withheld even their tacit support, the edifice of the president would crumble within no time.

In his opinion it would be better for the president to restore the deposed judges before the inaugural session of the National Assembly on March 17 to escape embarrassment. He said the Nov 3 action was taken by Gen Musharraf in his capacity as the army chief which no constitutional functionary was empowered to do.

The verdict of the Feb 18 election was against the extra-constitutional measures taken on Nov 3, Advocate Sheikh said, adding that now the president should bow to the will of the political sovereigns and, by an administrative order, free the detained judges and allow them to perform their judicial duties.

The former SCBA chief said this was an honourable option which would cause the president comparatively less damage and would also avert a collision between the presidency and parliament.

He said in case the parliament adopted a resolution for the reinstatement of the deposed judges, the executive would be duty-bound to enforce it.

As for speculations that a stay order could be obtained against the reinstatement of Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, he said the move did not seem plausible. He hoped that the judiciary would not involve itself in such matters when the parties that had won the polls had no plan to oust the sitting judges. He said these parties had also indicated that they would resolve the issue of subsequent inductees in the judiciary through a process of regularisation as done in the Al-Jihad Trust case.