KARACHI, Sept 28: The candidate for the forthcoming presidential polls and a former judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Wajihuddin Ahmed, has said that the outgoing assemblies cannot re-elect General Musharraf and he did not qualify to contest the polls under Articles 244, 63 and 42 of the constitution.

He expressed these views in his telephonic address to a general-body meeting of the Karachi Bar Association at Shuhda-i-Punjab Hall on Friday from Islamabad, where he had filed his nomination papers a day earlier.

Mr Ahmed said he had guided the nation to the right direction and fulfilled his national obligation by filing his papers, which were not meant to win the polls at any cost.

He said he was ready to take steps that could bring about a positive change.

Mandate

The present assemblies had no mandate to elect the president as they had already completed their tenure, he said, adding that any such move would be in violation of the constitution.

Mr Ahmed said people wanted to get rid of Pervez Musharraf at all costs, as the dictator could not control the deteriorating law and order situation.

“Pervez Musharraf, with or without uniform, is no longer accepted to the nation,” he said, adding that the general was now morally bound to tender his resignation.

Referring to the presidential reference against Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, he said it was an attempt to subjugate the judiciary but credit went to the lawyers who played a vital role in the struggle for the independence of the judiciary.

In reply to some queries, he said if the opposition parties fielded a consensus candidate against Pervez Musharraf he would surrender in his favour.

He said General Musharraf had promised to doff his army uniform on December 31, 2004, but he did not keep his commitment with the nation.

Terming the action to cordon off the roads and block the entry of lawyers into Islamabad an illegal move, he criticized the government for attempting to suppress the voice of dissent.

Undisputed candidate

KBA President Iftikhar Javaid Qazi later talked to journalists in the committee room of the City Courts, where he re-affirmed the lawyers’ stance that they had unanimously fielded Wajihuddin Ahmed to contest the election for the office of the president.

He said the military rulers and politicians were one and the same as far as the independence of the judiciary was concerned. He said Pervez Musharraf was enjoying all the powers due to the selfish politicians who had not learnt any lesson from their previous blunders when they had provided him an opportunity to become the president.

Dual offices

As a precautionary step, police personnel were deployed in front of the City Courts at a time when the Supreme Court of Pakistan gave its verdict about the dual offices of Pervez Musharraf. Following the pronouncement of the judgment, the lawyers raised slogans ‘Go Musharraf, go’ and ‘No to military rule’.