Like it or not, Musharraf is president: Pakistani media

ISLAMABAD: President Pervez Musharraf has been re-elected for a five-year term 'whether one likes it or not', the Pakistani media said on Sunday, noting that the verdict pointed to deep fissures within the opposition parties as also among the judiciary.

'Musharraf is president, whether one likes it or not', was the headline of the Daily Times editorial, unusually long at 845 words. Its editorials are normally half this length.

'A divided opposition has made Gen. Musharraf's task easy', The Nation said in its editorial, titled simply 'Presidential election'.

'There is the chance that the Supreme Court could rule against him, in which case the future would look a lot more uncertain concerning the kind of dispensation to shape up after the general election', The News noted in its editorial titled 'Five more years?'

After the Supreme Court 'refused to deliver a clear verdict' on the opposition's petition asking for a stay, Saturday's presidential election had resulted in an "unofficial" victory for Musharraf, Daily Times maintained.

A 10-member bench has barred the Election Commission from notifying the result till it hears on Oct 17 a petition challenging Musharraf's candidature. A nine-judge bench had earlier rejected the plea.

This 'half victory' for the opposition 'was not altogether a benign outcome', Daily Times said, adding that there were signals of disagreement "of a factional sort" among the first bench.

'In an extraordinary and unprecedented un-legal statement, one senior judge (of the first bench) who had dissented from the majority and took the view of 'non-maintainability' went down to Karachi and talked of 'conscience' before proceeding abroad on leave', the editorial noted.

This clearly referred, not to any point of law, but to the "moral" quality of the individual judges of the bench, it added.

In the 1990s too, Daily Times noted, the court had given 'clear signs of bitter factionalism...a fact substantiated in the publications that issued later from the pens of the judges involved'.

Noting that the court's see-saw on Musharraf's eligibility had led to a "division" in the country and had triggered a 'violence-prone campaign', Daily Times added, 'It now remains to be seen whether the Supreme Court can find a solution that puts an end to the civil strife rather than precipitating another crisis'.

The Nation focused on the divisions within the opposition - and the manner in which a member of the six-party Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) religious alliance had broken ranks.

The All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM), a conglomerate of 32 opposition parties had challenged the legitimacy of the elections and refused to take part in them. However, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) of former Prime Minister Benzair Bhutto had put up Makhdoom Amin Fahim as its candidate. The APDM resigned from the assemblies but the PPP chose only to abstain from voting, The Nation noted.

After the Supreme Court rejected its plea to declare Musharraf ineligible, the APDM tried to discredit the election through resignations and seeking the dissolution of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) assembly before the polls, it added.

The resignations failed to create the desired impact as the PPP decided to continue to sit in the assemblies. The dilly-dallying by the JUI (Jamait-e-Ulema Islami, a member of the MMA) foiled the move to get the NWFP assembly dissolved before Oct 6.

'Not only did the assembly remain intact but four MMA members turned up to cast their votes', the editorial said, adding, 'The presidential election has deepened the gulf between the PPP and the APDM while it has also brought into the open the divisions within the APDM. The unity within the MMA and APDM is, therefore, under considerable stress', it maintained.

According to The News, 'looking beyond the Sword of Damocles' hanging on the president till at least Oct 17, his camp 'will presumably feel content in that the election was held on schedule, that the NWFP assembly was in existence and not dissolved...and that the opposition was in significant disarray'.