I wonder if Mush going to give up his COAS position to run for election. Because as for as I know he can’t presently due to the laws that bar serving govt. employess for running for public office.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_27-9-2002_pg1_2
By Mubasher Bukhari
LAHORE: President Pervez Musharraf will hold presidential elections in January, for which his team has already started working on a plan to ensure his victory.
Sources told Daily Times that President Musharraf intends to hold presidential election in the beginning of 2003 to further strengthen his position in accordance with the Constitution. He has directed his aides to work out a plan immediately to ensure his victory with a considerable margin, they added.
They said, “His advisors have chalked out a plan and have started acting on it.” Sources claim that the president’s team has achieved their objective in Punjab, as all the candidates for the national and Punjab assembly from the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam (PML-QA), the government-backed National Alliance (NA) and several smaller parties have assured the authorities that they will vote for President Musharraf if elected in the upcoming polls.
The sources believe that the PML-QA and NA will manage to get 60 to 70 National Assembly seats out of 147 seats from Punjab, and will manage to bag 150 seats out of the 297 general seats for the Punjab Assembly.
The sources disclosed that the president’s men are contacting front-runners of the PPP and the PML-N in the Punjab and are trying to get assurances that after being elected they will vote for President Musharraf.
A couple of PPP and PML-N candidates also confirmed this, saying that the president’s representatives had contacted them and asked them whether they would vote for President Musharraf.
The president will need at least 50 percent of the votes from all the members of the Senate, National Assembly and the four provincial assemblies in order to be re-elected.
