Pakistan SC upholds Musharraf-led coup

Pakistan SC upholds Musharraf-led coup
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

ISLAMABAD, FEB 20: Pakistan’s Supreme Court has upheld the October 1999 coup by Gen Pervez Musharraf and said his removal during his absence by former premier Nawaz Sharif was an attempt to create dissension among the armed forces which amounted to a criminal conspiracy.

Dismissing petitions seeking review of its May 2000 judgement, an 11-member bench yesterday, however, observed that prolonged involvement of the army in civil and political affairs of the country would affect its professionalism and politicise the armed forces.

The bench, headed by Chief Justice Irshad Hasan Khan, dismissed the petitions after the government’s counsel told the court that he had been instructed by the government to reaffirm the assurances given by Gen Musharraf that he would hold elections in the country before October 2002. Upholding the Supreme Court’s May 12 last year judgement validating military takeover, the bench said the constitution provided no solution to the situation which arose on October 12, 1999, wherein the army had no option but to intervene to save the country from further chaos, collapse of law and order, economic stability, justice, good governance and safeguard the integrity and sovereignty of the country.

The court, however, reaffirmed that the validation and legitimacy accorded to the present government was conditional, inter-linked and intertwined with the holding of elections for national and provincial assemblies and the Senate with the given time-frame of October 2002.