Musharraf can hold two posts: HC

Ruling that the election of Musharraf through a referendum last year was valid, a Division Bench of the Lahore High Court has held that it saw nothing wrong with the general holding the post of chief of army simultaneously.

The opposition has shut down the Parliament for over six months demanding Musharraf to quit as chief of army as a compromise to accept his Presidency and his constitutional amendments with modifications.

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"We have not noted anything in the Constitution which would debar the president from remaining in uniform nor is his holding the two office simultaneously creating any hindrance to the smooth functioning of the government or any other institution," the bench said yesterday while elaborating on its short order issued recently.

The court, in response to a petition filed by Lawyers Forum further ruled that "none of the constitutional provisions is affected if the president remains in the uniform. Therefore, decision by the president that he would take off the uniform on a date of his own choice does not impinge upon any constitutional provision and the Article 6, in no way is attracted to this case."

Meanwhile Pakistan opposition parties walked out of the parliamentary budget debate for a second day running Wednesday, as the conflict between President Pervez Musharraf and hardline Islamists intensified.

Opposition legislators stormed out of the debate after thumping desks and shouting "Go Musharraf Go," in a repeat of Monday's boycott, and held a spontaneous news conference in the national assembly cafeteria to hit out at the army chief-turned-president.

"His uniform has become a symbol of (public) hatred," Maulana Fazlur Rehman, secretary general of the powerful hardliners' alliance Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), said.

Rehman accused Musharraf of resorting to "blackmail".

"We will not succumb to blackmailing and will face every challenge and interference in provincial affairs," the MMA leader said.

The MMA-ruled NWFP's assembly voted last week to make sharia the supreme law in provincial courts.

It has banned male doctors from treating women patients and male coaches from training female athletes, forced civil servants to pray five times a day, and is considering establishing a Taliban-style religious police.

It is also considering a bill to force all women to conceal themselves entirely in public with head-to-toe veils.