President’s term ends on Nov 15, SC told
By Saad Saud

ISLAMABAD—Pervez Musharraf’s term as president will end on November 15, his lawyers said Thursday, after a court ordered him to clear up uncertainty over his plans for re-election. Musharraf, a key US ally, is planning to seek a second five-year term as president amid fierce opposition to suggestions that he may try to prolong his tenure as army chief.
“The term of office of the president expires on November 15, 2007,” said a statement filed by his lawyers to the Supreme Court. Government sources have previously said that Musharraf planned to call a new presidential election by the federal and provincial assemblies some time between mid-September and mid-October. General elections are due by early 2008.
But the situation remains fluid, with Musharraf trying for a power-sharing deal with former prime minister Benazir Bhutto that could see him quit the army, and another ex-premier, Nawaz Sharif, vowing to return from exile next week. Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry ordered the government on Wednesday to name the date on which Musharraf’s term in office would expire.
His order came after the Supreme Court took up a legal petition, filed by the radical Jamaat-i-Islami party, which challenges a 2004 parliamentary act allowing Musharraf to be president-in-uniform. The judge has become a growing thorn in Musharraf’s side since the president tried to sack him earlier this year, sparking mass protests. The Supreme Court reinstated Chaudhry in July. Lawyers boycotted courts in several cities on Thursday in what they said was a relaunch of their campaign for democracy. Musharraf seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999 when he toppled Sharif.
Attorney General Malik Mohammad Qayyum said in the Supreme Court Thursday that President General Pervez Musharraf is fully qualified to contest the presidential election with or without uniform.He was speaking during the proceedings on a petition filed by Jamaat-e-Islami through its chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad, requesting the top court to stop the President from participating in the coming presidential election.
The petitioner contends that the President is also chief of army staff and holding two offices which is against the basic structure of the Constitution. The bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Abdul Hamid Dogar, Justice Mohammad Nawaz Abbasi, Justice Faqir Mohammad Khokhar, Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan, Justice M. Javed Buttar and Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed, admitted the petition for regular hearing and scheduled it begin on September 17.
The bench issued notice to the Attorney General and appointed three amicus—S.M. Zafar, Abdul Hafeez Pirzada and Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan—to assist the court. The Attorney General, after accepting the notice, requested the bench to adjourn the case for at least one month.