Court rejects challenges to Musharraf

A high court stacked with loyalists set the stage Monday for President Pervez Musharraf to resign as army chief and to lead the country as a civilian, tossing out all legal challenges to his reelection last month.

Musharraf, a general who took power in a 1999 coup, is now expected to step down from his military post as early as this weekend, shedding the uniform he has called his “second skin.” Although it would satisfy a key demand, the move is unlikely to mollify his opponents, who on Monday continued to demand a rollback of the state of emergency he declared Nov. 3.

Thousands of anti-Musharraf political activists, human rights workers and lawyers have been arrested under the decree, which suspended Pakistan’s constitution and basic civil liberties. Opposition parties say such repressive measures will make a farce of parliamentary elections scheduled for Jan. 8.

Monday’s Supreme Court rulings fulfilled what most analysts agree was Musharraf’s real motive in declaring emergency rule, beyond his stated reason that he needed sweeping powers to quell an Islamic insurgency on the country’s fringes.

A majority of the 10 justices on the current high court are handpicked replacements of independent-minded judges whom the Pakistani leader sacked under the state of emergency, before they could possibly rule against him on the legal challenges to his continued presidency.

The newly constituted bench threw out five petitions alleging that Musharraf’s Oct. 6 reelection by lawmakers was invalid in part because of his dual role as president and head of the army. A sixth petition stemming from the poll, but not directly related to Musharraf’s candidacy, is expected to be heard -- and also dismissed -- on Thursday.

That would clear the way for Musharraf to make good on his oft-repeated pledge to step down as army chief and take the oath as a civilian president as soon as the Supreme Court certified the election result.

Malik Abdul Qayyum, the attorney general, said it was unlikely Musharraf’s resignation and swearing-in would take place immediately after Thursday’s hearing because of procedural matters. But he ruled out a lengthy delay.

“It won’t take long -- maybe one or two days,” Qayyum said.

Opposition leaders quickly denounced the court rulings as illegitimate because the bench was stacked with Musharraf’s allies. Critics also scoffed at how some of the challenges were struck down on grounds of “non-prosecution,” meaning that the petitioners who filed them or the attorneys arguing their case were not present in court.

“They are in jail,” Athar Minallah, a lawyer and member of one of Musharraf’s early cabinets, said angrily. “What happened today was very absurd.”

In giving up his military uniform, Musharraf would meet a crucial demand not just of his political foes but also of the U.S., his most powerful sponsor.

The Bush administration considers Musharraf a leading ally in the fight against Islamic militants and has spent $10 billion in aid to Pakistan. But the White House has been concerned by Musharraf’s delays in relinquishing his military post and his precipitous slide in popularity among Pakistanis, many of whom regard him as a dictator and resent the U.S. for supporting him.

President Bush telephoned Musharraf two weeks ago to urge him to lift the emergency and resign as army chief, a call echoed by the U.S. State Department’s No. 2 official, John D. Negroponte, during talks Saturday with the Pakistani leader here in the capital. Musharraf refused to specify a date for either step.

Washington has also pressed Musharraf to cut a power-sharing deal with his biggest rival, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. But Bhutto, the leader of the Pakistan People’s Party, surprised many here and in the U.S. last week when she broke off those negotiations, calling instead for Musharraf to exit the scene completely.

“We are not going back to the former track,” Bhutto told reporters Monday in her hometown of Karachi, in the south. “We are interested in a road map for democracy, but we do not have the confidence that Gen. Musharraf’s regime could give us that road map.”

U.S. Ambassador Anne W. Patterson met Monday met with Bhutto, who returned to Pakistan from eight years of self-imposed exile last month, to try to persuade her to resume a dialogue with Musharraf’s government.

“The United States is interested in a reconciliation of all political moderates,” Patterson said, adding that Washington would help Pakistan in any effort to conduct free and fair elections.

Opposition politicians have questioned the credibility of polls held under emergency rule and threatened a boycott. But none of the largest parties has formally decided to stay out of the January elections, suggesting that they might be hedging their bets.

“A boycott will only be [effective] if it is made by a majority of opposition parties,” said Ahsan Iqbal, a leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-N. “A partial boycott would not be of any use.”

The head of Iqbal’s party, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, has been in exile in Saudi Arabia since Musharraf overthrew him eight years ago. Sharif attempted to return to Pakistan in September, after a ruling by the then-independent Supreme Court allowing him to do so, but Pakistan authorities deported him back to Saudi Arabia upon his arrival.

Musharraf is expected to leave today for a two-day trip to Saudi Arabia, possibly his last official foreign visit as head of the army in addition to president. Pakistani media have speculated that he might try to meet Sharif to mend fences, but Reuters news agency reported that Sharif said no meeting would take place.

Another opposition figure, former cricket star Imran Khan, declared Monday that he would go on a hunger strike in his jail cell. Khan, one of Pakistan’s most admired men, was arrested by police last week when he attended an anti-Musharraf student rally at a university in the eastern city of Lahore.

The onetime athlete is refusing to eat or drink anything until the former judges are reinstated, the central demand of his Movement for Justice party. His ex-wife, Jemima, with whom he remains close, told the Associated Press from London that Khan “plans to keep it up until the judiciary is restored. He could get very thin.”

The 10-member Supreme Court that handed down Monday’s rulings was one short of the 11-member tribunal originally impaneled to adjudicate the cases. Musharraf fired seven of those 11.

Minallah, the lawyer and former Cabinet minister, said Musharraf has had difficulty finding replacements because so many attorneys and lower-court jurists have refused to serve on a less-than-impartial bench.

“They are literally begging lawyers to become judges of the high court,” Minallah said, adding that the sacked justices remain under house arrest. Foremost among them is the former Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, whose attempted removal by Musharraf earlier this year began the Pakistani leader’s free fall in popularity.

Although Monday’s rulings in favor of Musharraf were practically a foregone conclusion, there was still some drama in the courtroom when one lawyer challenged the legitimacy of the newly constituted bench.

He was threatened by the justices with contempt of court.

henry.chu@latimes.com

Special correspondent Mubashir Zaidi contributed to this report.