Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf on Thursday filed his nomination papers for the October 6 presidential polls, formally launching his bid for another five-year term in the face of legal challenges and stiff protests by the opposition parties.
Islamabad was sealed off to thwart planned protests by lawyers as Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz led a large group of ministers and chief ministers of three provinces and top leaders of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q that filed the papers on behalf of Musharraf, 64, before the Chief Election Commissioner Qazi Muhammad Farooq.
PML-Q secretary general Mushahid Hussain Sayeed said Musharraf has the necessary majority in the electoral college comprising of the National Assembly, Senate and four Provincial Assemblies.
"We fully believe that President Pervez Musharraf will succeed. We will hold free, fair and transparent elections and the people of Pakistan will be free to choose their leadership," Aziz said.
He said it was a "historic day" for Pakistan and the "future of democracy" in the country.
Besides Aziz, 17 others including chief ministers of Punjab, Sindh and Balohchistan all belonging to the ruling PML-Q proposed and seconded Musharraf's name.
The Islamist Muthahida Majlis Amal, which is opposing Musharraf, is in power in the North West Frontier Province.
Two prominent candidates have announced that they would contest against Musharraf. The lawyers' community, which successfully spearheaded a campaign against the suspension of Chief Justice Iftikar M Chaudhry, has named Wajeehuddin Ahmed, a former supreme court judge who quit in protest against the 1999 coup by Musharraf against Nawaz Sharif.
Also breaking away from the ranks of Opposition, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party has named Amin Fahim as its candidate.
However, a spate of petitions challenging Musharraf's dual offices and his re-election bid are before the Supreme Court and an adverse verdict can derail his re-election bid.
Asked whether Musharraf would accept an unfavourable judgment, Hussain said, "The court judgment will accepted and respected."
Musharraf had told the the nine-member bench hearing petitions against him recently that that if re-elected for a second term, he will quit the post of army chief before taking oath.
Later, Attorney General Malik Mohmmad Qayyum said Musharraf will stay on as the army chief if he is not re-elected as president.
All the roads leading to the Election Commission were blocked on Thursday and police in riot gear deployed to prevent lawyers' organisations from heading to the commission office to protest against the general's plans to get re-elected.
To keep anti-Musharraf protests at bay, the government had launched a major crackdown on opposition last week, detaining and putting under house arrest several top leaders.
The arrests drew sharp criticism from the US, which termed the developments as "extremely disturbing."
The nomination papers will be scrutinised on Friday and the election will be held on October 6.
Minutes after Musharraf's nomination papers were filed, the Supreme Court bench hearing the petitions against the general said it wanted to finish off the hearing on Thursday and pronounce a verdict.
As the hearing began, Justice Rana Bhagwandas, who heads the bench, said the court wants to "finish off" the case on Thursday.
Expectations were that the court may deliver a short verdict after the presentations by three senior lawyers who have been appointed by the court as amicus curie, to advise it on the case.
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