JHANG, March 25: Syeda Abida Hussain, a former federal minister and central leader of the Pakistan People’s Party, says Gen Pervez Musharraf is not even eligible to contest the presidential election under the constitution while holding another office of the army head.

“Constitution does not allow Gen Musharraf to hold the offices of president and chief of the army staff, simultaneously,” she told members of the Jhang District Bar Association at a hunger strike camp set up by lawyers.

She said that Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry had made every Pakistani proud by his determination. “Had he (Justice Iftikhar) yielded to the dictates of a military ruler, he would still have been holding the office of the chief justice of Pakistan,” she said.

Appreciating the commitment and determination shown by the lawyers in their struggle, the PPP leader said that Pakistan was created by a lawyer and now the lawyers community was leading the struggle for its survival. Earlier, on her arrival at the district bar office, Abida met a batch of four lawyers on hunger strike, and garlanded them.

Also accompanying here were some local leaders of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal.