Islamabad: Relenting to mounting pressure to doff uniform, Pakistan’s embattled military ruler Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday informed the Supreme Court that he will quit the post of Army Chief after he is re-elected as President.
Ending the speculation about the General’s future plans, the President's lawyer Sharifuddin Pirzda told a nine-member Bench hearing a raft of petitions challenging his continuation in dual offices that he would give up his uniform before taking oath as President for a second term.
”If elected for a second term, Gen Musharraf will relinquish charge of Chief of Army staff soon after election and before taking oath,” Pirzada read out before a Bench headed by Justice Rana Bhagwan Das on Tuesday.
The lawyer said Musharraf will file his nomination papers to seek re-election.
Musharraf's undertaking to the apex court came a day after his main ally, the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q, too said that it ‘expects’ him take oath as a civilian President after being elected for a second term.
It is to be seen whether the apex court bench hearing a spate of petitions by opposition parties questioning Gen Musharraf continuation as President and Army Chief as well as his plans to get re-elected in uniform would permit him to contest the election while holding the dual offices.
Gen Musharraf's commitment before the court on Tuesday meant that he would quit the influential post of Army Chief, from which he derived most of his authority so far, only after his re-election.
Opposition parties specially, the Pakistan Muslim League-N, (PML-N) headed by exiled former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, which gave a call for en-masse resignation of Opposition members from Parliament if he seeks re-election in uniform, have insisted that he contest as a civilian.
Dissatisfied with the General's latest move, PML-N Chairman Raja Zafarul Haq said if he decided to quit, he should do so right away. He pointed to the electoral changes which make it easier for Musharraf to seek re-election in uniform.
Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid defended Musharraf's move saying that the President has been stating that he was constitutionally entitled to retain the uniform till the end of this year. “Now that he is getting re-elected before November 15, he has given an undertaking to the highest judicial forum in the country, that is Supreme Court, which should be taken seriously.”
The issue should be left to the courts whether he could contest or not as the Election Commission has amended the rule based on previous judgements by the Supreme Court, Rashid told TV channels.
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