| LAHORE, June 25: President Pervez Musharraf will have to get himself re-elected between Sept 15 and Nov 15 while retaining his military uniform, but if he takes the option of going in for re-election between Nov 15 and Dec 15, the protection given to him under the Constitution to hold two offices will become a moot point, says prominent constitutional expert and a former minister for law Dr Khalid Ranjha.
Talking to Dawn on Tuesday, the ruling PML Senator said under Article 41 of the Constitution, election of the president was to be held not earlier than 60 days and not later than 30 days of the expiration of the term of his office. Thus, the election of the president should take place between Sept 15 and Dec 15.
Article 41(7), he said, provided that the chief executive, as he then was, would assume the office of the president and shall hold the same for five years. However, by the same article, provisions of Article 43 that prohibit the president from holding any other office stand overridden.
"The president, therefore, enjoys the protection of holding another office along with the presidency for a period of five years i.e. up to Nov 15."
Also a former judge of the Lahore High Court, Dr Ranjha said the president had now two options. First he may get himself re-elected 60 days before the expiry of his term. In such an eventuality, the Constitution permits him to go into the electoral process while retaining his uniform and holding the office of the army chief.
His second option is to seek a fresh mandate within 30 days after the expiry of his term i.e. between Nov 15 and Dec 15. In this case, the protection available to him under Article 41(7) may not be available.
"However, one may not ignore the fact that prohibition under Article 63-D has been deferred by an act of parliament till Dec 31, 2007."
Dr Ranjha said: "It may, therefore, be argued that even after Nov 15 till Dec 15, the protection given to President Musharraf to hold dual office may remain. However, this is debatable."
Some other ruling PML leaders are of the view that Gen Musharraf should re-run for the post as a civilian, implying that the general should give up the post of the army chief before seeking mandate for another term.
Dr Ranjha said Gen Musharraf's term as president was due to expire on Nov 15, but was allowed to stay as army chief till Dec 31. The term could be extended by parliament by waiving the disqualification clause, he said.
He rejected as bad logic argument that since the existing assemblies were about to complete their five-year tenure, they were not competent to give another term to Gen Musharraf. He said if the opposition parties were not "Musharraf-specific", they would realise that the argument that existing assemblies could not re-elect a president for a full five-year term did not hold water.
He argued that if Gen Musharraf decided to quit, the existing assemblies would elect his successor for a full term. And if during the rest of the life of the existing assemblies the new president also resigned for some reason or he died, a new successor would also be chosen for five years. This, he said, clearly meant that the assemblies could elect presidents as many times as the post fell vacant.
Opposition parties' insistence that the existing assemblies could not give Gen Musharraf another term was a 'self-serving argument', said the former law minister.
He said it was the government's prerogative to decide when to hold the elections. However, whichever assembly was in existence would re-elect the president.
He said at one stage, the government gave a serious thought to holding elections in phases. However, he said, he did not know if the plan had been reviewed.
Under the said plan, the National Assembly elections were to be held while retaining the provincial assemblies.
Dr Ranjha said there was no possibility of any manipulations in the presidential polls even if Gen Musharraf was in uniform.
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