General to seek re-election as President on Oct 6

General Pervez Musharraf will seek a new five-year term in a presidential election set for October 6, officials said on Thursday...

General Pervez Musharraf will seek a new five-year term in a presidential election set for October 6, officials said on Thursday, even as Opposition leaders urged the courts to stop him from running and vowed to resign en masse from Parliament and State Assemblies.

Two days after Musharraf pledged before the Supreme Court that he would quit as Army Chief if re-elected as President, the Election Commission announced the poll schedule on Thursday. Musharraf’s current term as President ends on November 15. Railway Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed admitted that if former premier Benazir Bhutto’s PPP too resigns from the Assemblies, Musharraf’s re-election would lack credibility.

The SC is hearing a spate of petitions against the re-election of Musharraf, who seized power in a bloodless military coup in 1999 overthrowing the Nawaz Sharif government, as well as over his holding of the dual post.

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Opposition lawmakers threatened to resign en masse if Musharraf seeks a second term in uniform, even as a minister said the General could consider imposing emergency if all avenues for re-election are blocked.

As the Election Commission announced October 6 as the date for presidential polls, opposition leaders, including from former premier Benazir Bhutto’s PPP, said they would close ranks and quit the national and provincial assemblies, the electoral college of the polls, to deprive Musharraf’s election of any credibility. A strong reaction came from PPP as spokesman Faratullah Babar said, “We have already made it clear. If he submits his nomination without removing his uniform, then we will consider resigning from assemblies along with other opposition parties.”