Pakistani Politics

The Supreme Court on Tuesday reiterated that former prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif can come to Pakistan any time and stressed for the implementation of its earlier judgment in letter and spirit. A seven-member larger bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was hearing a contempt of court petition filed by the PML-N.

The Supreme Court in its historic judgment on August 23 this year had ruled that Nawaz Sharif has inalienable right to return to the country and participate in political activities with the directions that the federal and provincial governments should not hamper the safe return of the former premier.

During the hearing, the Supreme Court observed that the statements given by the foreign secretary, the chief of protocol and the chairman PIA apparently proved that the prime minister violated the court orders.

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Justice Javed Iqbal on Tuesday said the apex court would decide the petitions, challenging the candidature of General Pervez Musharraf for holding election for the office of the president by Friday as he said that a member of the bench would not be available next week.

An eleven-member bench of the Supreme Court headed by Justice Javed Iqbal resumed the hearing of identical petitions, challenging the candidacy of Musharraf for holding election to the office of the president. At the start of the hearing, Justice Javed Iqbal directed the Attorney General Malik Qayyum to conclude his arguments today (Wednesday).

Other members of the bench include Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday, Justice Mohammad Nawaz Abbasi, Justice Faqir Mohammad Khokar, Justice M Javed Buttar, Justice Tassadaq Hussain Jilani, Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed, Justice Chaudhry Aijaz Ahmed, Justice Syed Jamshed Ali and Justice Ghulam Rabbani.

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President General Pervez Musharraf has decided that the intelligence agencies will not be allowed to interfere in the election process in the next general elections and orders have been issued to all the agencies in this respect, highly placed sources told The News.

It has also been decided in principle that no former Army general would be appointed as caretaker prime minister and the caretaker cabinets at the federal and provincial level would not comprise armed forces personnel, the sources added.

They said the president will announce a date for the holding of the next general elections in the country simultaneously with the appointment of a caretaker prime minister in the second week of November.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will announce the schedule for the polls in the third week of the same month. In all probability, elections for the national and provincial assemblies would be held on the same day, and polling day will fall in the second week of January next year.

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By Ansar Abbasi

Pakistani investigators and agencies have an excellent track record of solving major terrorist and other crimes and the FBI or Scotland Yard have never been officially invited to conduct any probe, even during the two tenures of Benazir Bhutto in the late ’80s and ’90s.

The PPP leader’s mantra for foreign help to probe into the Oct 18th terrorist attack is not only in conflict with her own track record but it also sounds unconvincing if the official record of Pakistani investigators is examined. This record shows that the Pakistani agencies and investigators have solved almost every high- profile terrorism case, including incidents of suicide bombings. In the case of Karachi, the results are claimed to be almost 100 per cent.

That Benazir Bhutto during her rule relied on local agencies was confirmed by Maj Gen (retd.) Naseerullah Babar, who served as interior minister in BBís second term. When contacted he told this correspondent with great pride that during BBís tenure all major cases of terrorism were tracked down within days without any foreign help.

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President Gen Pervez Musharraf on Thursday assured worried PML-Q legislators that Nawaz Sharif would not be allowed to return before the general elections.

The president said this while talking to MNAs belonging to the ruling party and its allies at a dinner hosted by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz at the Prime Minister House on Thursday evening.

The dinner was attended, besides others, by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, President PML-Q Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Secretary General Mushahid Hussain Sayed, federal ministers, the chief ministers of Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan and the chairman of the Kashmir Committee Hamid Nasir Chattha.

Many MNAs were eager to know whether the government would allow Nawaz Sharif to return, fearing this would pose a host of political challenges to the ruling party in the Punjab. The president assured the ruling coalition that the next prime minister would be from the PML, as they would win the elections on the basis of their performance.

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The Supreme Court is a constitutional and not a revolutionary forum, Justice Javed Iqbal, heading an 11-member bench of the apex court, observed on Thursday during proceedings of various constitutional petitions filed by Justice (retd) Wajihuddin Ahmed and Makhdoom Amin Fahim and others against the candidacy/eligibility of the president for the next term as well as holding of two offices.

Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday observed that the courts were here to stop revolutions as the purpose of the court was to aid the government to avoid revolutions.

“The courts are not the enemies of the government, but they are here to complement all organs of the state to ensure progression. We are sitting here to stop revolution and to interfere in legal and moral issues and cannot leave it to the people,” Justice Ramday remarked and added that examples of revolutions in various countries were in front of us. “Have they proved good?” Justice Ramday questioned.

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Pakistan People’s Party Chairperson Benazir Bhutto said on Thursday she would not accept the results of the Oct 18 bomb blasts investigations unless foreign experts were involved in the probe and the latest forensic and scientific techniques were used.

Addressing a press conference at Bilawal House, she expressed dissatisfaction over the Karachi blasts investigation. “I am demanding the investigation through foreign experts, because I was the target,” she said, adding that the incident could not be left without proper investigation.

Benazir said she never demanded a judicial inquiry into the incident and asked as to why the government was reluctant to hire foreign experts, as they invited foreign experts for investigation into the suicide attacks on Gen Musharraf and Shaukat Aziz. “The government also invited foreign experts to help deal with the situation after the October 2005 earthquake.”

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A larger bench of the Supreme Court Wednesday resumed hearing of the identical petitions challenging Gen Pervez Musharraf’s candidature for the office of president.

The 11-member bench headed by Justice Javed Iqbal hearing the case. Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, counsel of Justice (Rtd) Wajihuddin, continued his arguments.

The Supreme Court will announce its verdict on petitions challenging General Musharraf’s nomination papers by the end of the next week, said Justice Javed Iqbal on Tuesday.

Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday in his remarks yesterday said that the qualification and disqualification clauses laid down in the Constitution would apply to a presidential candidate at the time of the filing of nomination papers.

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President Gen Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday announced landmark constitutional and development packages for the Northern Areas inhabited by more than one million people.

“All the administrative and financial powers of the Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas Ministry (KANA) will be transferred to the Northern Areas,” the president announced while addressing a large gathering of government officials and other notables of the area at the Military Auditorium in Gilgit where he inaugurated the 18 MW power project built at Naltar, about 40 kms from here.

However, in his speech, the president did not mention the judicial system currently functioning as an attached department of the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas. “While the whole country is facing power shortage, this region will be one of the luckiest areas free of load-shedding,” the president said.

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The PPP on Tuesday took more security measures for the party chairperson Benazir Bhutto after receiving a new death threat to her. Sources said the party also decided that all engagements and movements of Benazir would be “top secret” and would not be disclosed even to top party leaders.

The PPP leader received another death threat on Tuesday through a hand-written letter in Urdu in which an unidentified person threatened to kill Benazir Bhutto. Senator Farooq Naik, the lawyer of Benazir Bhutto, confirmed this and said a top official revealed there were apparently two suicide bombers behind the last week’s bloody attempt to kill her.

The PPP senator said he had received a two-page letter threatening to kill the former prime minister “by any means.” The writer claimed to be a friend of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden and extremists in Pakistan.

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