‘Musharraf shouldn’t be allowed to contest Prez polls’

Pakistan's opposition parties, including PPP of former Premier Benazir Bhutto, said that the General cannot contest polls in uniform.

Rejecting President Pervez Musharraf’s stand that he would quit as Army Chief after his re-election, Pakistan’s opposition parties, including PPP of former Premier Benazir Bhutto with whom he held power-sharing talks, said that the General cannot contest polls in uniform.

Musharraf’s plans to seek re-election from the present assemblies is contrary to the law as term of the assemblies expires by October 15, Raza Rabbani of PPP, the leader of the Opposition in the Senate, said.

“How can those assemblies elect a man for five years when their own time expires in a few weeks,” he said.

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Besides, the law does not allow a man in uniform to contest elections to the office of the President, Rabbani said reacting to Musahrraf’s undertaking to the Supreme Court that he would quit as Army Chief after his re-election and would take oath as a civilian President.

PPP leader Bhutto, who has pledged to return home from her self-imposed exile on October 18, had been negotiating a power-sharing deal with Musharraf which she defended by saying that the talks were aimed at smooth transition from military dictatorship to democracy.

The All Pakistan Democratic Movement (APDAM), headed by exiled former Premier Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) party, said Musharraf should not be allowed to contest in uniform.

“General Musharraf is not qualified to contest Presidential elections in uniform,” PML-N Chairman Raja Zafar-ul Haq said.