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Top court allows Musharraf to run

"Now our fight against dictatorship will be on the streets."

Farid Piracha, Jamaat-e-Islami lawmaker

The Pakistani Supreme Court yesterday dismissed legal challenges to President Pervez Musharraf's bid for a new five-year term.

"These petitions are held to be non-maintainable," presiding Judge Rana Bhagwandas told the court, drawing howls of protests from lawyers in the gallery.

"Shame, shame!" and "Go, Musharraf, go!" they said as they pumped their fists in the air in the packed, cavernous courtroom.

The 6-3 decision in favor of the military leader allows him to contest the Oct. 6 election as army chief and removes the main obstacle to his staying in office.

Bhagwandas said that the court would explain its reasoning later.

Information Minister Mohammed Ali Durrani urged Pakistanis to respect the ruling. Attorney General Malik Mohammed Qayyum said the way was clear now for Musharraf to run.

"Absolutely, there is no hurdle for it," Qayyum said.

The government has insisted all along that Musharraf, who took power in a 1999 coup, is a qualified candidate. Critics have countered that he cannot run because he has retained his position as powerful army chief.

With his popularity and clout eroding, the general has said he would doff his uniform if he wins a new presidential term in the vote by federal and provincial legislators. Government lawyers said he would continue as army chief if he is not re-elected.

Musharraf has faced growing political opposition since his failed attempt to oust the country's top judge in March and is struggling to contain growing Islamic militancy.

Yesterday's ruling bitterly disappointed activists from the opposition and the legal fraternity who saw the ruling as an acid test of whether the military could be divorced from politics.

Farid Piracha, a lawmaker from Pakistan's biggest religious party, Jamaat-e-Islami, which had filed one of the several petitions challenging Musharraf's eligibility to run, said he refused to accept the ruling.

"The judges have not fulfilled their constitutional obligation," Piracha said. "Now our fight against dictatorship will be on the streets ... This decision does not reflect the sentiments of the people and it will not be accepted."

Javed Hashmi, acting leader of exiled former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's party, said their lawmakers would resign from parliament -- an opposition strategy aiming to rob the election of legitimacy.

"We will submit our resignations and not become part of this illegal election process," Hashmi said outside the court.

Lawyers say that if the Election Commission approves Musharraf's candidacy today, the only legal recourse would be to challenge it in a provincial high court, which could take months.
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