Supreme Court validates Musharraf’s re-election

* Authorities given Dec 1 deadline to announce presidential poll results

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday directed the chief election commissioner and the government to declare Pervez Musharraf president for a second term by December 1, and said that President Musharraf shall relinquish the office of the chief of army staff (COAS) before taking oath as civilian president. The 10-member bench of the SC said in its verdict that during the course of the hearing of the constitutional petitions challenging President Musharraf’s candidacy in the presidential election, the president’s senior counsel Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada and Attorney General Malik Muhammad Qayyum had submitted a written undertaking in the SC on September 18, 2007 that General Musharraf would relinquish the office of COAS before taking oath as a civilian president. The bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Abdul Hameed Dogar held that President General Musharraf was qualified to contest the presidential election and did not suffer any disqualification under the constitution and the law. The court also vacated the interim stay of the October 6 presidential election results that had kept the Election Commission from announcing them until now. masood rehman

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