ISLAMABAD, Nov 19: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed all petitions — except one which does not appear to be of much significance — which had been filed before the proclamation of the state of emergency to challenge General Pervez Musharraf’s eligibility to contest the election for presidential term.

These petitions were being heard earlier by an 11-judge bench, but most of its members stood deposed on November 3 after they refused to take the oath under the Provisional Constitution Order.

The decision taken by a 10-member bench on Monday leaves way for allowing the Election Commission to notify Gen Musharraf’s re-election after the only pending petition is decided on Thursday.

Headed by Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, the bench dismissed some of the main petitions for non-prosecution and the others for having been withdrawn, but it served notice on relatively unknown petitioner, Dr Zahoor Mehdi, to appear before it on Thursday. The petition of Dr Mehdi concerns rejection of his own candidature by the Chief Election Commissioner.

“The stay against the Election Commission not to notify the results of the presidential election till the final verdict was issued by the Supreme Court together on all the petitions,” Attorney-General Malik Mohammad Qayyum told reporters after the hearing.

He expressed the hope that the stay would be vacated by the court on Thursday after deciding the petition of Dr Mehdi.

A pre-emergency 11-judge bench had on Oct 5 declined to stay the presidential election, but directed the Election Commission not to notify the results till the bench gave its final verdict.

The main petitions of former Supreme Court judge Wajihuddin Ahmed, who also contested the presidential election against Gen Pervez Musharraf, and of Advocate A.K. Dogar of the Pakistan Lawyers Forum were dismissed for non-prosecution. A contempt of the court petition of Mr Wajihuddin against the CEC also stood dismissed for non-prosecution.

However, petitions of PPP president Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Jamaat-i-Islami leader Liaquat Baloch and Dr Anwarul Haq were dismissed as withdrawn.

The pre-emergency Supreme Court bench had heard the petitions for two weeks, but seven judges in the bench were sent home under the PCO after the emergency was imposed.

On Monday, an application filed by Advocate-on-Record (AoR) M.S. Khattak on behalf of Mr Wajihuddin annoyed the court and it asked the applicant to tender an apology in writing for moving what appeared to be a contemptuous application.

The AoR withdrew the application and tendered an apology in writing.

Though the attorney-general accused the petitioner of maligning the judiciary, he advised the court to accept the apology. “Being an important case, it should be properly argued by the petitioners,” he said, adding that the advocate-on-record being a former deputy registrar should have been careful.

Mr Khattak was also asked to argue the petition of his client in the absence of counsel Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan and Hamid Khan. The AG told the bench that although Aitzaz Ahsan was under solitary confinement, Hamid Khan, who had originally argued the case, was not under custody.

The AoR said he had no instructions to argue the case, adding that the whereabouts of Hamid Khan were not known.When he tried to clarify that the counsel had already argued the case for two weeks before the Supreme Court, Justice Faqir Mohammad Khokhar observed that nothing had been argued before this bench.

Justice M. Javed Buttar also observed that this was a new bench.

Advocate Shafqat Abbasi withdrew a separate application as well as the main petition without any condition on behalf of Makhdoom Amin Fahim when he was reminded that it would be difficult for them to wriggle out of the Election Commission if any adverse order was passed by the court on their application.

“When an application is filed the court is bound to take notice of it,” Justice Buttar observed.

Another AoR, Chaudhry Mohammad Akram, disowned the petition of Liaquat Baloch and said he had neither pressed it nor adopted it because very harsh language had been used in the petition. Liaquat Baloch is not available and his counsel Dr Farooq Hassan is abroad. He also withdrew the petition of Dr Anwarul Haq.