Re: Hearing of Presidential Petitions Completed - SC Verdict Soon
I am not sure if it is a victory. It is just dragging Pakistan in a continued state of uncertainty.
Whatever the decision, whether it would have been in favor of President Musharaf or not, the judges should have given a clear verdict.
People need to move on quickly and remove any uncertainities. It is not good for Pakistan if things are just dragging on.
God Bless Pakistan. God Bless President Musharaf. 
Re: Hearing of Presidential Petitions Completed - SC Verdict Soon
No God bless free judiciary this time? 
Re: Hearing of Presidential Petitions Completed - SC Verdict Soon
^
Re: Hearing of Presidential Petitions Completed - SC Verdict Soon
God Bless the Free Judiciary
Re: Hearing of Presidential Petitions Completed - SC Verdict Soon
this has made situation more complex. Now I guess Amin Fahim will have to contest elections seriously. You never know whats going to happen next. SC may disqualify Mush and can announce #2 runner to be the president and if PPP’s candidates pulls out of the elections, Wajeeh Uddin can actually become the President 
Only way to avoid this situation is that PPP votes for Ilahiee Buksh Soomro and rest votes for Mush as planned so that in case of Mush’s disqualification, Ilehiee Buksh is #2 runner !
Re: Hearing of Presidential Petitions Completed - SC Verdict Soon
^ Bhaijan, never fear, Mohammedmian Soomro will be #2, and take his rightful place as the President should khuda-nakwasta something untowards happens to President Musharaf between now and the elections.
God Bless President Musharaf, God Bless Pakistan, God Bless the Free Judiciary.
Re: Hearing of Presidential Petitions Completed - SC Verdict Soon
Don’t worry bhai. Fahim will not be allowed to become President by default.
BB has already said her party members will abstain in the vote. Plus the APDuM parties have either largely resigned, or whoeever has not will not be taking part.
That will make it easier for some tactical voting directed by the pro-Musharraf camp, instructing a portion of their members to vote for Mohammedmian Soomro who will end up in 2nd place.
Re: Hearing of Presidential Petitions Completed - SC Verdict Soon
http://thenews.jang.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=10486
Verdict clears points favouring govt
By Tariq Butt
Friday’s short order of the 10-judge Supreme Court Bench on the presidential vote cleared, though temporarily, certain pertinent points that apparently goes in the government’s favour. Prima facie, the present assemblies have been accepted by the apex court as the valid electoral college for General Pervez Musharraf’s re-election, a senior government lawyer told this correspondent. A major contention of anti-Musharraf elements was that the current assemblies have no mandate to re-elect the president. They have been arguing that a legislature having just five-year lifespan can’t give anybody for 10 years.
The second point, the lawyer said, is that the bench has also apparently accepted that Musharraf’s candidature is legitimate to begin with. This involves his bid for re-election in uniform while being in government service, which presents a unique case as allowed by the Constitution, he added. The government was thrilled over the fact that the electoral college escaped the deprivation of the assemblies of Balochistan and North West Frontier Province (NWFP) that faced the danger of being dissolved before the presidential election because of the resignation of the legislators of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) legislators. Already, the resignations of the All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) legislators have considerably damaged the college. At some point of time, the infirmity the electoral colleges faces is going to be agitated in a superior court.
The court order finally paved the way for the presidential vote that has been continuously hampered because of the unending legal battle focussing on Musharraf. For the time being, Musharraf’s opponents are relatively depressed and unhappy, but they have not out-rightly rejected the short order. Government lawyers argued that the apex court ruling should not take retrospective effect. They said that Musharraf did not vacate the army post earlier because his legal team had advised him that he was allowed to hold both the offices in the light of the Supreme Court judgments. When the 10-member bench would re-assemble after Eidul Fitr, it is expected to adjudicate upon the petition within the current month. However, in any case, it would come out with its verdict before November 15, the cut off date for Musharraf to leave his military office. These lawyers held the view that the 17th Amendment was a kind of a temporary arrangement towards the journey for restoration of complete democracy. They argued that the process of the presidential election should not be halted because the chief election commissioner had spelt out the poll schedule and made other arrangements for the vote as authorised under the Constitution. Those who witnessed Friday’s proceedings were impressed with the remarkable expositions made by Barrister Wasim Sajjad and Attorney General of Pakistan Justice (retd) Malik Qayyum. The arguments of constitutional guru Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada did not create a good impact on them. When the apex court would resume the hearing on October 17, the main government team would comprise Wasim Sajjad and Qayyum. However, Pirzada would continue to be involved to keep an incisive eye on the court proceedings.
Re: Hearing of Presidential Petitions Completed - SC Verdict Soon
http://www.nation.com.pk/daily/oct-2007/7/columns5.php
Luck smiles on Musharraf
Ikramullah
The much awaited crucial Supreme Court verdict on the petitions by presidential candidates Makhdoom Amin Fahim and Justice (Retd) Wajihuddin, seeking stay order of the presidential elections, was finally delivered on Friday. The short order states “having heard the learned counsel for the parties at some length, it is unanimously resolved and directed that the election process already commenced shall continue as per the schedule notified by the Chief Election Commissioner. But the final notification of the election of the returned candidate shall not be issued till the final decisions of these petitions. The main petitions shall be set down for hearing on October 17.” In compliance of the above verdict; the presidential election has been held as scheduled on October 6, 2007. This marks an historic end to the president’s eight years rule beginning from October 12, 1999. Much has happened in Pakistan – on the regional and global level. In Pakistan we are at the thresh hold of a new era where after 8 years, the Pakistan army will soon have a whole time Chief of Army Staff and General Musharraf will soon finally doff his uniform, assuming the office of the president for the next five years as President Pervez Musharraf.
Looking at the fate of Pakistan’s past military rulers, Musharraf has so far emerged as the luckiest. He survived more than one attempt on his life when all the odds were against him. On March 9, 2007 whether ill-advised or otherwise, Musharraf chose to shoot at his own foot. His star that seemed to desert him on July 20, 2007 but the general has managed to get out of his darkest moments during his rule. Most people thought it was only a question of time before the engine sustaining Musharraf’s authority collapses. But the commando again survived against the heaviest odds. The final assault came from a united opposition in the form of the Charter of Democracy. The combination of two main stream political parties, joined by the religious parties under the banner of the MMA was, indeed, a lethal weapon that the ruling political alliance could not counter and defeat, by itself in the next general elections. Had the psychological threat combined with the street agitation sustained itself for a few weeks, Musharraf’s re-election for his next term would have posed a tough match not easy for him to win without the backing of the armed forces and the ruling alliance of PML-Q, MQM and PPP. At this critical juncture nature again smiled at Musharraf. The lethal threat posed by the united assault by Benazir and Nawaz Sharif evaporated under internal and external factors coming into play, turning the scales in the president’s favour. However, as the tenure of the president as well as the life of the assemblies approached to an end, fresh troubles for Musharraf emerged in the shape of the legal and constitutional petitions filed in the Supreme Court on the issue of his holding dual offices – that of the president and COAS. At the same time the shrewd political insight of Benazir prompted her to seize the moment for the realisation of her dreams of coming into power again. A combination of the moderate forces under Musharraf and Benazir were the need of the hour in the crucial war against terrorism. Efforts in this direction had been undertaken quite sometime back but came to the forefront in the shape of Liddle Hart’s strategy of indirect approach during the past few weeks.
While the petitions in the Supreme Court seeking to block Musharraf’s eligibility to contest the presidential elections on one count or the other reached within hours of the D Day of October 6, there was hectic political activity both in Islamabad and London in the respective camps of the government and the PPP. This has finally ended in a dramatic manner in the shape of promulgation of the “National Reconciliation order” (NRO 2007). The ordinance gives amnesty to all politicians who were booked in various corruption charges during the political era from January 1, 1985 to October 12, 1999, the date when Musharraf took over ousting Nawaz Sharif. It can be safely predicted that if the old mindset of the government and the opposition persists Pakistan shall remain ridden with one crisis or the other. The one point agenda of the opposition focusing on the ousting of Musharraf has not paid off and is not likely to yield quick results in the near future with a major political party like the PPP joining hands with the president aimed at facilitating the establishment of a democratic, Islamic, social welfare state.