Pakistan’s Supreme Court began hearing legal challenges to President Pervez Musharraf’s rule on Wednesday, adding to the woes the embattled United States ally faces as he prepares to secure another term.
Musharraf, who is also army chief, hopes to get re-elected by the national and provincial assemblies between September 15 and October 15. A general election is due around the year-end.
But Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup, has seen his popularity slide since he tried to dismiss the chief of the Supreme Court in March.
At the same time, the government is under attack by militants who are believed to have engineered Tuesday’s suicide bombings near the army headquarters in the city of Rawalpindi that killed 25 people, including staff of the main intelligence agency.
Musharraf has turned for help with his political plans to former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in the hope that a power sharing deal would boost his legitimacy and support and help him overcome constitutional hurdles to remaining in power.
The United States and other Western allies hope a pact between the old rivals would bring stability and help sustain Pakistan’s efforts in the war on terrorism.
The Supreme Court, presided over by the chief justice Musharraf tried to fire in March, began hearing three petitions against the president filed by his opponents, who include lawyers and Islamist politicians.
The challenges centre on Musharraf’s holding of the posts of president and army chief at the same time and seeking another term as president, which opponents say is unconstitutional.
”Our battle, our struggle, is against the system,” AK Dogar, a lawyer for the Pakistan Lawyers’ Forum, which filed one of the petitions, told the court in a reference to military rule.
The court is due to resume the hearing on Thursday.
‘Hopeful’
The legal threat to Musharraf’s presidency has added urgency to efforts to strike a political deal with Bhutto. Talks between Bhutto and Musharraf’s representatives resumed in Dubai on Tuesday and both sides reported progress.
”We are hopeful that the issues will be resolved amicably,” Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, who is known to be close to Musharraf, said on Wednesday.
Bhutto wants Musharraf to step down as army chief, immunity from prosecution for herself and others who ruled in the late 1980s and 1990s and the lifting of a ban on a prime minister serving a third term. She also wants presidents stripped of power to dissolve the National Assembly and dismiss governments.
In return, her party would help clear the way for him to run for re-election after he quits as army chief by backing a constitutional change waiving a bar on state servants running for office.
But many members of Musharraf’s ruling party vehemently oppose a deal that could clear the way for their old rival, Bhutto, to return to power and sideline them.
Bhutto faces opposition from within her own party for negotiating with the unpopular president.
Another looming problem for Musharraf is the return of the prime minister he ousted in 1999, Nawaz Sharif, who has vowed to end his exile and return on September 10 to end Musharraf’s rule.
As a last resort, Musharraf could impose emergency rule or even declare martial law, though he has ruled that out.
Tuesday’s bomb attacks have only added to the pressure.
”The failure of the government’s anti-terror policy is no more in doubt,” the respected Dawn newspaper said.
”If the government does not move towards the establishment of a broad-based civilian government our army will remain bogged down in an unwinnable guerrilla war.” – Reuters