Friday, Jun 13, 2003
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By B. Muralidhar Reddy
A party spokesman said it deplored the judgment. "This ruling accords the dubious distinction to Pakistan as being the first state to declare that democracy and civil rule is the same as military dictatorship." According to the ruling, the Constitution permits a serving Army chief to also hold the office of President. However, this runs counter to the different Articles of the Constitution. Article 43(1) states: "The President shall not hold any office of profit in the service of Pakistan or occupy any other position carrying the right to remuneration for the rendering of services". According to Article 50, "the President is part of Parliament" and Article 63 (1)(k) states that "a person shall be disqualified from being elected or chosen as member of Parliament if he has been in the service of Pakistan... unless a period of two years has elapsed since he ceased to be in such service". "In the presence of such clear-cut constitutional provisions, it is an unprecedented conclusion of the honourable Lahore High Court judges that none of the constitutional provisions is affected if the President remains in the uniform," the PPP said. It said the verdict had come on the eve of Gen. Musharraf's visit to the United States. "The PPP has noted that the Pakistani judiciary suffered the most as a result of the intrigues by vested interests against the elected Government of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. The sacking of independent-minded judges in 2000 sapped the judiciary of its strength striking at the very principle of dispensing justice without fear. "It is a measure of this sapping of the strength of judiciary that the state prosecutor held a press conference in the morning claiming that court had ordered the freezing of Bhutto assets while the judgment itself was announced later in the afternoon," the party added. It said that Tuesday, June 10, 2003 would be remembered as a "dark" day in the history of Pakistan. "Let those who feel proud of their `achievement' rejoice in it. The PPP will continue its fight for the restoration of the Constitution, the end of Bonapartism and the supremacy of Parliament."
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