Pakistani leaders set for talks

The opposition PPP is celebrating the election result

The leaders of the two parties that won the most seats in Monday's elections in Pakistan are due to meet to discuss forming a coalition government.

Such a government could force President Pervez Musharraf from power.

The Pakistan People's Party leader, Benazir Bhutto's husband Asif Zardari, will have talks with Nawaz Sharif, who heads the Pakistan Muslim League.

Mr Sharif has said he wants Mr Musharraf to go, but Mr Zardari's party has been less clear-cut on the issue.

Mr Musharraf has said he wishes to stay and work towards stable democratic government in Pakistan.

He said the polls had strengthened moderate forces inside the country.

Correspondents say the most likely coalition government is between Mr Zardari and Mr Sharif's parties, as they would have more than half of parliament's seats between them.

If a new governing coalition manages to muster a two-thirds majority in parliament, it could call for Mr Musharraf to be impeached.

No guarantees

Mr Sharif has said he is prepared to discuss joining a coalition with Mr Zardari's party in order "to rid Pakistan of dictatorship forever".

But a coalition between the two is the most likely option, there are certainly issues on which they disagree and there are no guarantees an alliance will emerge.

Separately, Mr Zardari has ruled himself out as prime minister, despite his party's success at the election.

He has said his PPP party would choose another candidate to lead a coalition government that opposition parties are expected to form.

Mr Zardari, a deeply divisive figure in Pakistani politics who has spent several years in prison on corruption charges, is not an MP and is therefore not currently eligible to serve as prime minister.

But there had been speculation that he might enter parliament via a by-election.

Major ally

Mr Zardari has said his party could work with the MQM, a Sindh-based regional party which supports Mr Musharraf.

Mr Sharif has urged Mr Musharraf to resign, and a PPP statement cited alleged remarks by the president that he would step down if the parties supporting him were defeated in elections.

In an earlier interview for the US newspaper the Wall Street Journal, Mr Musharraf said he would not resign or retire.

He was re-elected to the presidency last October, in a parliamentary vote boycotted by the opposition as unconstitutional.

He has been a major US ally in the "war on terror" but his popularity has waned at home amid accusations of authoritarianism and incompetence.

With votes counted in 258 out of 272 constituencies, the PPP has won 87 seats, according to the Election Commission of Pakistan.

The Pakistan Muslim League, or PML-N, is in second place with 67 seats so far.

New Video of Bhutto Assassination May Contradict Government Version of Events

Dec. 30: Video footage appears to show Benazir Bhutto being shot by a man at close-range.

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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A newly released video of Benazir Bhutto's assassination and an inconclusive medical report raised new doubts Monday about the official explanation of her death and were likely to intensify calls for an independent, international investigation.

The footage, obtained by Britain's Channel 4 television, showed a man firing a pistol at Bhutto from just feet away as she greeted supporters through the sunroof of her armored vehicle after a rally Thursday.

Her hair and shawl then moved upward and she fell into the vehicle just before an explosion — apparently detonated by a second man — rocked the car.

Bhutto's aides, including one who rushed her to the hospital, said they were certain she was shot. She was buried Friday without an autopsy.

The government, citing a report from doctors at the hospital where she died, said she was not hit by any of the bullets, but was killed when the force of the blast slammed her head into a lever on the vehicle's sunroof.

However, a copy of the medical report sent to reporters by a prominent lawyer who is a board member of the hospital said the doctors had made no determination about whether she was shot.

It gave the cause of death as "open head injury with depressed skull fracture, leading to cardiopulmonary arrest."

The report, signed by seven doctors at the hospital, said that when Bhutto was brought in, she had no pulse and was not breathing.

Blood trickled from a wound on the right side of her head and whitish material that appeared to be brain matter was visible. Her clothes were soaked with blood.

The medical team worked for 41 minutes to try to resuscitate her before declaring her dead.

The report said her head wound was an irregular oval shape measuring about 2 inches by 1.2 inches. No surrounding wounds or blackening were seen.

"No foreign body was felt in the wound. Wound was not further explored," it said.

The report was released by prominent opposition lawyer Athar Minallah, who is a member of the board that oversees Rawalpindi General Hospital.

He said that the doctors had called for an autopsy to definitively determine the cause of death, but that Rawalpindi police chief Saud Aziz refused.

"The wound might appear to be a bullet wound, but without an autopsy no doctor would ever be able to give a conclusive opinion that it was or it wasn't a bullet wound," Minallah said. "Without an autopsy there can be no investigation at all."

However, Aziz denied that he refused to authorize an autopsy.

"I have not told anyone about stopping the post-mortem," he told The Associated Press. "It is a legal requirement, but again it is dependent upon the legal heirs of the deceased."

In a news conference Sunday, Bhutto's widowed husband, Asif Ali Zardari, confirmed that he had refused a request to perform an autopsy, saying he did not trust the government of President Pervez Musharraf to carry out a credible investigation.

He also rejected the government's account about his wife's death as "lies."

Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said Bhutto's family was free to exhume her body for an autopsy if it wished.

The dispute undermined already shaky confidence in Musharraf, a former army chief who seized power here in a 1999 coup. Many of Bhutto's supporters have demanded a U.N. probe similar to the one investigating the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

"It's difficult to believe that they are so incompetent that they would handle this whole affair in such a shabby manner so as to create so much doubt," Minallah said.

Musharraf agreed to consider international support when he spoke by phone Sunday with Gordon Brown, the British prime minister's office said. But Rashid Qureshi, a spokesman for the Pakistani president, said Monday that Musharraf had made no such promises.

The government has blamed an Islamic militant leader for Bhutto's killing, an accusation the militant and Bhutto's party dismissed.

Talat Masood, a former army general and security analyst, said the government was "outright stupid" for coming out with firm conclusions about her death just one day later, saying a more thorough investigation was required.

"They should have waited at least a few days," he said.

Bhutto murder: the key questions

Several days after Benazir Bhutto's assassination, the exact circumstances of her killing remain unclear. The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Karachi has been examining the differing accounts of her death and the direction in which the murder inquiry is heading.

THE DIFFERING ACCOUNTS

Many questions remain about Ms Bhutto's murder

In the immediate aftermath of the blast, police said that Miss Bhutto had safely escaped the attack. But later it became apparent that she had been taken to the Rawalpindi General Hospital's emergency section.

A seven-member team of doctors which examined her sent a report to the health ministry saying Ms Bhutto had open wounds on her left temporal region from which "brain matter was exuding". The report did not say what caused the wound, apparently because no autopsy had been performed on the body.

A day later, an Interior Ministry spokesman, Brig Javed Iqbal Cheema, told the media that Ms Bhutto died of a skull fracture caused by a lever attached to the sun-roof of her bullet-proof vehicle. He said she must have hit her head against the lever when she ducked to escape the assassins' bullets. He denied that her body carried any gunshot wounds.

These differing accounts inevitably fuelled speculation about a possible cover-up at worst, and an attempt by the government to sidestep its responsibility at best.

The interior ministry's version has been rubbished by Miss Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) which says that she was shot in the neck, and that the bullet exited from the back of her head.

Party spokeswoman Sherry Rehman said that she was with Miss Bhutto when the attack took place, and later cleaned her body at the hospital. She says that she saw two wounds that were bleeding profusely.

WHY DOES IT MATTER?

Militants made no secret of their dislike of Ms Bhutto

One point of contention between the PPP and the government has been the security provided to Ms Bhutto.

Given Ms Bhutto's status as a former prime minister and her popularity, the government would not like to be seen as having failed to provide adequate security to her, more so since the government itself had warned Ms Bhutto about threats to her life.

But if the PPP's version is held to be true and the assassin indeed got so close to Ms Bhutto as to be able to hit her at almost point-blank range, then all sorts of questions are raised, ranging from lax security to complicity by elements within the government.

JUST HOW LAX WAS THE SECURITY?

At least two pieces of information that have come to light since the assassination suggest that security for Ms Bhutto was indeed lax.

One is an e-mail she sent to her long time friend and lobbyist in the US, Mark Siegal, on 26 October.

There are questions over the level of security

She wrote in the e-mail that she had been made to feel insecure by (President) Musharraf's "minions" and had not received the requested improvements to her security.

She said she was being prevented from using private cars or vehicles equipped with tinted windows. She said that she had also not been provided with jammers to prevent remote controlled bombs or police mobile outriders to cover her vehicle on all sides.

The other material is amateur video footage that appears to show a man in sunglasses shooting her from close quarters and another man draped in a white robe blowing himself up soon afterwards.

No security presence is seen in the entire video clip.

Media reports suggest that the police and rangers guarding checkposts around the exit gate of Liaquat Bagh, where Ms Bhutto addressed the rally, left their posts before Ms Bhutto's vehicle drove out of the park.

WHY DID MISS BHUTTO'S HUSBAND REFUSE AN AUTOPSY?

Ms Bhutto's husband, Asif Zardari, said that he was contacted by the Punjab home secretary who wanted permission to hold a post mortem examination, but that he refused the request.

"We know how these autopsies are conducted and how the reports can be manipulated. We also know how she died," he told the media on Sunday.

In conservative Pakistani society, women's bodies are rarely allowed by their relatives to be subjected to a post mortem examination. It is even avoided in the case of men due to the belief that it constitutes disrespect to the deceased.

WHY WAS THE SCENE OF THE BLAST HOSED DOWN?

The scene of the blast was washed with a high pressure hose of the fire brigade hours after the incident, apparently to clean the road.

The interior ministry spokesman said the spot was washed after all the required evidence had been collected by the investigators.

He brushed aside observations by the media that the investigators may still have had to revisit the site for verification of evidence they had collected earlier.

WHAT EVIDENCE IS THERE THAT THE ATTACK WAS ORDERED BY THE TALEBAN?

After the attack, the interior ministry provided the media with transcripts of a telephone conversation between a top Taleban commander in South Waziristan, Baitullah Mehsud, and an unnamed person.

PPP supporters disagree with the government's version of events

The two congratulate each other on a job well done, but Miss Bhutto's name is not mentioned in the brief conversation.

The ministry spokesman says an audio tape of the Pashto language conversation can also be provided to the media, adding that the government has Mr Mahsud's voice signature to prove that it is him talking.

The transcripts were made public on the day an Italy-based news agency - Adnkronos International - quoted an al-Qaeda spokesman, Mustafa Abu al-Yezid, as claiming responsibility for the assassination.

Shortly before Ms Bhutto's return to Pakistan in October, the Daily Times newspaper carried a statement from Mr Mahsud, saying he was determined to kill her because she was an American agent.

A senator from South Waziristan who had reportedly passed the statement to the newspaper denied having done so two weeks later, when Ms Bhutto's convoy was bombed in Karachi on 18 October.

Mr Mahsud's spokesman has promptly denied the interior ministry's allegation, claiming that the audiotape of the alleged telephonic conversation is a fake.

He has also demanded investigation into the killing by "independent" agencies to identify the actual culprits.

Benazir Bhutto killed in attack

Pakistani former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has been assassinated in a suicide attack.

Ms Bhutto had just addressed an election rally in Rawalpindi when she was shot in the neck by a gunman who then reportedly set off a bomb.

At least 15 other people died in the attack and several more were injured.

President Pervez Musharraf and his government called on people to remain calm so that the

"nefarious designs of terrorists can be defeated."

Ms Bhutto had twice been the country's prime minister and had been campaigning ahead of elections due in January.

Nawaz Sharif, also a former prime minister and a political rival, told media her death was a tragedy for "the entire nation".

"I can't tell you what the feelings of the people of Pakistan are today,"

he told News 24 after returning from the hospital where she was brought.

Read Full Article from Source "News Cracker"

Musharraf gives up army uniform

Gen Musharraf said the army was the saviour of Pakistan

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has handed over the command of the military in a ceremony in Rawalpindi.

Gen Musharraf passed a ceremonial baton to Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kiani at the army's headquarters.

In his farewell address, Gen Musharraf said the army was his "life" and he was proud to have been the commander of this "great force".

He had been under huge pressure to quit as army chief and is due to be sworn in as civilian president on Thursday.

The move will mean an end to nine years of military rule in Pakistan.

'Half a century'

Dressed in full military uniform, Gen Musharraf arrived at the ceremony with a baton under his left arm.

On his arrival, he was greeted by Gen Kiani and inspected a guard of honour.

A military band played Pakistan's national anthem and the ceremony began with a recitation from the Koran.

The colourful ceremony was shown live on PTV, Pakistan's national channel.

"I am bidding farewell to the army after having been in uniform for 46 years," Gen Musharraf said in his address.

Gen Musharraf's army seized power in a 1999 coup

"This army is my life, my passion. I love this army, and this relationship will continue, although I will not be in uniform," he said.

Gen Musharraf said it was difficult to describe his emotions.

"When one has lived half a century with a family, a family like the army, united, and fully loyal... then leaving it is bound to bring on emotions. But such is the system of life. People come, and they have to go. Good things also come to an end. Everything is mortal," he said.

"I am fortunate to have commanded the best army in the world. This army is an integrating force, the saviour of Pakistan," Gen Musharraf said.

"Without this army, the entity of Pakistan cannot exist".

'Excellent soldier'

Gen Musharraf expressed full faith in the ability of his successor, Gen Kiani, to lead the force.

President Musharraf's unpopularity has caused Western concern

"He's an excellent soldier and I can say with full confidence that under his command, the armed forces will achieve great heights," Gen Musharraf said.

He had designated Gen Kiani, a former head of the intelligence services, as his successor in October.

The most serious pressure on the president to give up his uniform had come from the United States, his main international backer.

Washington has grown concerned in recent months at the army's inability to rein in pro-Taleban militants and by Gen Musharraf's growing unpopularity.

As a civilian leader, Gen Musharraf will still have considerable powers, including the ability to sack a civilian government.

He imposed emergency rule on 3 November in order, he said, to control an unruly judiciary and deal with the growing threat from Islamist militants.

General elections are to be held on 8 January, but Gen Musharraf has yet to say when the emergency will be lifted.

Fatal blast near Musharraf's HQ

A suicide bomb attack has killed at least seven people and injured 11 near Pakistan's army headquarters, in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.

Officials said the blast occurred some 2km (1.24 miles) away from a secure compound containing the army HQ and President Pervez Musharraf's office.

General Musharraf was in his office at the time of the attack, but was unhurt.

The attack follows a number of recent bombings in Pakistan, which have been blamed on Islamic militants.

The location of the explosion was a police checkpoint.

A man had approached the checkpoint on foot and detonated his explosives, a government spokesman said.

Two policemen and two paramilitary soldiers were among those killed by the explosion, along with the suspected bomber, according to the AFP news agency.

President Musharraf was safe inside his headquarters in Army House discussing the security situation with senior officials when the bomb went off, according to presidential spokesman Rashid Qureshi.

Heightened tensions

This is the third bombing in Rawalpindi in the past two months.

On 4 September, two suicide bombers killed 25 people in the city, in an attack on a bus carrying intelligence officials to work.

The following month, 139 people were killed when bombers in Karachi attacked the motorcade of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto as she returned to Pakistan after eight years of self-imposed exile.

These earlier bombings are thought to have been the work of Islamic militants, who are angry with both the Musharraf government and Ms Bhutto, whom they believe to be too closely allied to the US.

Tensions in the country were heightened in July when Gen Musharraf ordered troops to storm the Red Mosque in Pakistan's capital Islamabad, killing hundreds.

The mosque had been occupied by Islamic militants, who were using it as a base from which to organise opposition to the government and enforce strict Sharia law in Islamabad.

Bhutto determined to contest poll

Ms Bhutto described the attacks as "dastardly and cowardly"

Former Pakistani PM Benazir Bhutto has promised she will never surrender to militants following twin bomb attacks on her convoy which killed 130 people.

Ms Bhutto told that there could be more attacks to come, but said she and her party were determined to contest the parliamentary elections in January.

The carnage has raised questions about the safety of campaigning for the poll.

Earlier, she said ex-army officials had been behind the attacks, but stressed she was not blaming the government.

She also said she had been warned that she would be targeted by four militant groups before returning to Pakistan after eight years in self-imposed exile.

Correspondents say many are asking why Ms Bhutto held the procession in Karachi on Thursday despite such fears.

'Saving democracy'

In an interview, Ms Bhutto said she was lucky to be alive following the two attacks on her motorcade as it travelled down the main road from Karachi's airport to the city centre.

What I really need to ask myself is: do I give up, do I let the militants determine the agenda? Benazir Bhutto

Authorities have said the first blast was caused by a hand grenade and that the second was a suicide bombing, but the exact sequence of events remains unclear.

She said armed militants had targeted her and that she had been saved by the bravery of her bodyguards.

Ms Bhutto conceded she was at constant risk of another attack in the future, particularly during an election campaign.

"What I really need to ask myself is: do I give up, do I let the militants determine the agenda?" she said.

Ms Bhutto said she and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) were determined to contest the parliamentary election due to be held by mid-January and were ready to take the risks to defend democracy.

"I've been having a party meeting and, believe me, the spirit amongst the party is one that I'm so proud of because they say we can't let the militants dictate to us what's going to happen, and that we have to try and save Pakistan by saving democracy. So my supporters are ready."

Warnings

Ms Bhutto was not very specific about who she thought had attacked her, but did say she had received a warning about Pakistani and Afghan members of al-Qaeda, the Taleban and local Pakistani groups.

I don't believe the state or the government was involved in the attack on me at this stage Benazir Bhutto

Several Islamist militant groups had threatened to attack Ms Bhutto after she promised to confront those operating in the northern tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

Half an hour before the bombs went off, she said, her security personnel had detained someone found with explosives around his body.

The person was handed over to the police, but Ms Bhutto said she did not know whether the police had discovered anything.

Ms Bhutto said Pakistan's President, Gen Pervez Musharraf, had called her shortly after the attack and that she was not blaming the government for what had happened.

KEY DATES 06 Oct: Presidential polls held 17 Oct: Supreme Court resumes hearing challenges to Musharraf candidacy 18 Oct: Benazir Bhutto's homecoming 15 Nov: Parliamentary term ends and general election must be held by mid-January

"I don't believe the state or the government was involved in the attack on me at this stage," she said.

"But I do believe that the sympathisers of the militants had managed to infiltrate some of our agencies and some of our administrative apparatus in a new guise and that they abused their positions to give covert support to the militants, which is why controlling militancy has really not succeeded within the country."

Ms Bhutto said extremists were a small minority in Pakistan and that she wanted to appeal to those who wanted to build a moderate society.

Huge crowds greet Bhutto return

Hundreds of thousands of people have been greeting Benazir Bhutto, following her dramatic return to Pakistan after eight years in exile.

Well-wishers packed the streets of Karachi in the hope of glimpsing the ex-PM, causing her motorcade to get bogged down as it left the airport.

Ms Bhutto is set to hold power-sharing talks with President Pervez Musharraf, which could see her becoming PM again.

She has pledged to work towards free and fair elections.

There is a huge security presence amid threats of attacks by militants.

Roads clogged

Ms Bhutto flew from Dubai, accompanied on the flight from Dubai by about 100 members of her Pakistan People's Party (PPP).

At least 200,000 people turned out to greet her, lining the 6km (four-mile) route from the airport into the city.

The BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan in Karachi says many people are dressed in the red, black and green colours of Ms Bhutto's PPP party and there is a carnival atmosphere, with music playing and food stalls in place.

The size of the crowd on the streets means her convoy is making very slow progress

Reports say her special bullet-proof truck took three hours to go just half a kilometre and that the road was still clogged as dusk fell.

The former prime minister rejected police calls to sit inside the vehicle, instead on top of it with party colleagues.

Ms Bhutto is planning to make a speech at the tomb of Pakistan's founding father, Mohammed Ali Jinnah.

"It's an extremely moving and emotional moment for me," Ms Bhutto told the BBC after her arrival in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city.

"I could not believe that this day that I have counted the hours, the minutes, the months and the years to, had finally arrived."

Enduring popularity

When she first stepped onto Pakistani soil at Karachi airport Ms Bhutto was overcome with emotion and burst into tears.

Many PPP supporters have been bussed in from outlying areas by the party - a show of organisational strength which the ex-prime minister hopes will boost her chances of a return to power, correspondents report.

The BBC's Damian Grammaticas in Karachi says that despite being away for eight years, Ms Bhutto is still enormously popular as a scion of Pakistan's pre-eminent political dynasty.

About 20,000 troops and police have been deployed in the city to oversee Ms Bhutto's arrival amid threats by Islamist militants to assassinate both her and Gen Musharraf.

Gen Musharraf had asked Ms Bhutto to delay her return until the Supreme Court decided whether he was eligible to serve as president for another term.

He easily won a presidential vote on 6 October after opposition deputies in the national and provincial assemblies - which choose the president - either boycotted or abstained from the vote.

However, the court said he could not be officially declared the winner until it had finished ruling on objections to his candidacy.

Ms Bhutto left the country soon after Gen Musharraf seized power in a coup.

Washington has backed a power-sharing deal with Gen Musharraf which would see Ms Bhutto becoming prime minister.

It has become increasingly concerned over the military's inability to defeat Islamist extremists and Gen Musharraf's rising unpopularity.

Musharraf to summon high level meeting next week

ISLAMABAD: President Pervez Musharraf will call a high level meeting next week to hold consultations for strategy after the presidential election till November 15, sources said.

Chief ministers of Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan would also meet the president in next week, sources added.

Pakistan set to choose president

Pakistani lawmakers are set to vote in a presidential election, even though it is not clear if President Pervez Musharraf has the legal right to run.

Gen Musharraf is expected to win the vote in parliament and the country's four provincial assemblies.

But Pakistan's Supreme Court says no winner can be announced until it rules if he can stand while still army chief.

A deal with former PM Benazir Bhutto means her supporters will not join an opposition boycott of the election.

On Friday Gen Musharraf dropped corruption charges against Ms Bhutto - a stride towards an expected power-sharing deal.

President Musharraf hopes the reconciliation agreement, as it is called, will add credibility to his government.

Ms Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) is the largest in the country.

'Just a formality'

Pakistan has been engulfed in political upheaval in recent months, at the same time as the security forces have suffered a series of blows from pro-Taleban militants opposed to Gen Musharraf's support for the US-led "war on terror".

HAVE YOUR SAY If both the sides are serious, it should work. This should bring the much-desired stability to Pakistan Bijal Bhatt, Auckland, New Zealand

Gen Musharraf will step down as army chief, but only if he wins the election, his lawyers have said.

Voting is due to take place from 1000 to 1500 (0500 to 0900 GMT).

But Friday's ruling by the Supreme Court throws the presidential election into confusion.

The BBC's Barbara Plett in Islamabad says government officials called the decision a formality but analysts said it was a serious setback that would place a question mark over the legitimacy of the poll.

It means that even if Gen Musharraf does get the most votes he cannot be declared winner until the court has decided if he was a valid candidate in the first place.

KEY DATES 06 Oct: Presidential vote due to be held 17 Oct: Supreme Court to resume hearing challenges to Musharraf candidacy 18 Oct: Date ex-PM Benazir Bhutto has set for her homecoming 15 Nov: Parliamentary term ends and general election must be held by mid-January

Last week the court dismissed a number of earlier objections filed by Gen Musharraf's opponents on technical grounds.

That led to fresh petitions being filed this week.

The judges said they would not make a final decision before 17 October, which coincides with the day Ms Bhutto says she will return from years of self-imposed exile.

Correspondents say Gen Musharraf was waiting for the court's verdict before formalising a power-sharing deal with Ms Bhutto.

The ordnance signed into law on Friday exempts any person charged with - but not convicted of - corruption between 3 January 1986 and 12 October 1999.

Correspondents say it is designed to exclude another former Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, whose corruption cases date from 2000.

The amnesty paves the way for Ms Bhutto's return to contest parliamentary elections scheduled to be held by mid-January.

The day of the General: •Musharraf to run for president in uniform •Petitioners, lawyers’ leaders livid

ISLAMABAD, Sept 28: The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed on technical grounds petitions against Gen Pervez Musharraf holding two offices, giving a legal boost to the president to contest the election for the second term in uniform.

It was a majority (six-three) verdict by a nine-member bench headed by Justice Rana Bhagwandas.

The bench threw out the petitions challenging the dual offices of the army chief and the president held by Gen Musharraf, declaring that these were not maintainable. In other words, the merit of the cases which had been debated for two weeks along with the issue of maintainability, became irrelevant as the majority of judges dismissed the challenge by declaring that the petitions could not be entertained at this forum.

After suffering a series of setbacks from the superior judiciary over the past few months, such as the restoration of the chief justice, acceptance of Nawaz Sharif’s right to return from exile and bail to Javed Hashmi, President Musharraf received the first good news from the Supreme Court.

Government supporters termed the verdict a ‘great victory’ and said the day clearly belonged to Gen Musharraf.

The verdict received an immediate adverse reaction inside the packed courtroom the moment the bench rose for the day. Though the short order was heard in pin drop silence by scores of lawyers and some political leaders, the courtroom echoed with slogans of ‘shame, shame’ and ‘go Musharraf go’ which later turned into real protest as lawyers and supporters of the petitioners walked out to join a much bigger crowd.

Some of the lawyers described the judgment as revival of the doctrine of necessity in the country’s chequered judicial history.

Former vice-chairman of the Pakistan Bar Council Ali Ahmed Kurd asked lawyers to lay siege to the Election Commission on Saturday -- the day of scrutiny of nomination papers of the presidential candidates.

“For reasons to be recorded later, as per majority view of 6 to 3, the petitions are held to be not maintainable within the contemplation of Article 184(3) of the Constitution (court’s original jurisdiction under the fundamental rights),” the judgment announced by Justice Rana Bhagwandas said.

“As per minority view of Justice Rana Bhagwandas, Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza Khan and Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan, all these petitions are held to be maintainable under Article 184(3) and hereby accepted. As per majority view these petitions are hereby dismissed as not maintainable,” he said.

Attorney-General Malik Mohammad Qayyum appreciated the judgment and said it was a correct decision and the dissent in the bench reflected that judges had applied their independent mind.

Soon after the verdict, police escorted president’s counsel Sharifuddin Pirzada and the AG out of the courtroom to ensure their security from the wrath of a furious crowd outside.

Reacting to the judgment, PML (N) acting president Makhdoom Javed Hashmi said the infamous doctrine of necessity, under which all military rules had been validated by the apex court, was still continuing. “We thought the judiciary has become totally independent, but this impression proved to be wrong,” he deplored.

He announced that a campaign would be launched against the regime and for complete independence of the judiciary.

MMA parliamentarian Farid Paracha said the judgment did not reflect the aspiration of the people, rather it strengthened the rule of a military dictator. He said the people of Pakistan had rejected it, adding that the MMA would file a review petition. He said that the struggle for restoration of genuine democracy in the country would be intensified.

Supreme Court Bar Association president Munir A. Malik said it was not a verdict which had been unexpected. “Though the July 20 judgment of restoring Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry was a step ahead, we still have a long way to go for complete independence of the judiciary. Although the judgment is disappointing, our battle is not over,” he added.

He said the three dissenting judges would always be remembered as Justice A.R. Cornelius and added that history would record its own conclusion regarding the other six judges.

Senior Advocate Hamid Khan said judges had abdicated their jurisdiction in deciding the matter, adding that the order was a continuation of the Tameezuddin and Dosso cases (in which the concept of the doctrine of necessity was introduced).

However, he said, the judgment would not dampen lawyers’ struggle which would continue till the end of dictatorship.

Advocate Akram Sheikh said that by dismissing the petitions under the cover of technicality, the Supreme Court had resurrected the infamous decision in the Maulvi Tameezuddin case dismissing the petition on technical grounds.

He said he had been asked by his client (Jamaat-i-Islami) to move a review petition against the decision which he would file on Monday.

Earlier, Advocate Akram in his arguments before the court emphasised that it was the duty of the court to scrap the uniform of President Musharraf because it had allowed him to keep the uniform. Any validation by the court, he said, would not be accepted.

Advocate Hamid Khan said President Musharraf’s holding of two offices derogated the constitutional provision of equality before the law because he was holding the gun.

A.K. Dogar said that Article 63(1-d) allowed President Musharraf to hold one office, but the President to Hold Another Office dealt with the dual-office law which was against constitutional provisions.

Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, appearing as amicus curiae, said: “We as a nation have reached the final stage of transition where there is an opportunity to all candidates for the presidential election that they would enter upon the office of the president as civilians.”

Government counsel assaulted

ISLAMABAD, Sept 24: The lawyers’ political battle took an unpleasant turn outside the courtroom on Monday when a lawyer sprayed black paint in the face of a government counsel while he was entering the Supreme Court premises.

Advocate Ahmed Raza Qasuri was encountered by Khurshid Khan, former assistant advocate general of the NWFP, who sprayed the paint apparently to avenge his outburst against Supreme Court Bar Association president Munir A. Malik and Aitzaz Ahsan in a television talk show.

Mr Qasuri is reported to have used derogatory language against Munir Malik in the television programme on Sunday.

After the incident, Mr Qasuri rushed to the courtroom and complained about the attack. He accused the leadership of lawyers’ community of hatching a conspiracy and “rendering him blind with dangerous chemicals”.

In a pitched voice he informed the court about the incident and accused two or three associates of Aitzaz Ahsan and Munir A. Malik of attacking him.

“This is the level of tolerance of those who call themselves custodians of the law,” he deplored, adding: “From their attitude, act and conduct they wanted to cause grave injuries and harm to me by rendering me blind.

This happened within the premises of the Supreme Court where people come with dignity and confidence.”He requested the court to take strong action against the lawyer.Justice Rana Bhagwandas, heading a nine-member bench seized with a set of identical petitions against President Pervez Musharraf holding two offices, sympathised with the counsel and deprecated the incident with the observation that whosoever had done this had done a wrong thing.

He, however, ignored the request for action.“Please be seated and do these things outside the court,” Justice Bhagwandas observed when the counsel insisted that the court should take cognizance of the incident.“I am officer of this court and when the Supreme Court takes suo motu notice on applications of Allah Ditta and Chiragh Din (all and sundry), it should also take action of the incident,” Mr Qasuri said.Later in a complaint he submitted to the Registrar of the Supreme Court and the SHO of the Secretariat Police Station, Mr Qasuri accused Aitzaz Ahsan, Munir A. Malik, Ali Ahmed Kurd and Tariq Mehmud of having conspired against him.

The motive of the attack, he said, was his objection to the appointment of Aitzaz Ahsan as amicus curiae on the ground that he was not a neutral person and his stance against President Musharraf was widely known.He said he had also said that the so-called movement of the lawyers had been launched “at the behest of foreign governments”.

“Today’s attack is a reaction to that bold stand taken by me against delinquent lawyers who are bringing bad name to the noble profession of law by taking law into their hands.”Tariq Mehmood condemned the incident but said that one should take care of his own dignity and respect.

Munawer Azeem adds: The Secretariat Police Station on Monday registered a case against prominent lawyers, including Aitzaz Ahsan, on the complaint of Ahmed Raza Qasuri under PPC 337-L (injuring persons during a brawl) and PPC 109 (abetting in a crime).The Deputy Superintendent of Police, Secretariat Circle, Gulfam Nasir, confirmed that Khursheed Khan, Aitzaz Ahsan, Munir A. Malik, Ali Ahmed Kurd and Tariq Mehmood had been nominated in the FIR.

Nawaz Sharif Back To Saudi Arabia

Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Mr. Nawaz Sharif is now back to Jaddah (Saudi Arabia), which is taken by the Saudi Officials as his second exile.

When Mr. Nawaz Sharif reached Jaddah airport, some Saudi Officials welcomed him and he reported to have embraced some of the Saudi Officials too, but the media was retain to publish those pics till evening.

One thing which is very astonising here is that no Pakistani Official was at Jaddah airport to receive or welcome The Former Premier Nawaz Sharif despite that fact that Ambassador (retd) Shahid Karimullah was present at the moment in the city.