K J M Varma

Islamabad: Pakistan's ruling party on Saturday said the Presidential poll to re-elect Pervez Musharraf will be held in the first week of October even as the government indicated that the General can get a second term without a contest.

Chief Election Commissioner Qazi Muhammad Farooque said he would shortly announce the poll schedule for the Presidential elections.

His statement came as the ruling Pakistan Muslim League leader Mushahid Hussain Sayed said the Presidential election would be held in the first week of October, after which President Musharraf will doff his uniform.

Talking to Geo TV, the party general secretary welcomed Pakistan People s Party chief Benazir Bhutto s announcement to return Pakistan on October 18.

"Her return is timely, which shows she doesn't want to sabotage the presidential election," Sayed said.

As Musharraf finalised his plans for re-election, a senior minister said that the General will be deemed to have been elected unopposed for another term if the opposition parties did not put up any candidate against him.

The Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan Niazi was quoted in the media as saying that opposition parties, who were against Musharraf's re-election by the existing assemblies, were unlikely to nominate any Presidential candidate.

The Election Commission would not be required to hold the poll if there was no other nominee, he said.

According to Afgan, the Muttahida Majlis Amal (MMA) which was in power in North West Frontier Province and shared power with PML-Q in Balochistan would abstain while PPP too would boycott the polls which would suite Musharraf's re-election plans.

The government was comfortable so long as the opposition parties boycott the polls instead of quitting the assemblies, he said.

As a result of opposition parties predicament, Musharraf would have no challenger against him, and the Election Commission would declare him elected unopposed for a second term, Afgan said.

Musharraf wants to be elected by the same assemblies which had elected him earlier, a move that has been strongly resisted by the Opposition.

However, the General justifies his decision saying his term ends earlier than that of the assemblies and he would get an endorsement by the new assemblies after the general elections expected to be held in January 2008.

The electoral college of the president comprises 342 members of the National Assembly, 100 members of the Senate and 65 votes each of the four provincial assemblies.

After his re-election, Musharraf is expected to dissolve Parliament and assemblies and hold fresh polls in January.

After announcement of the election schedule the process of nominations and polling was expected to be completed in 22 days and if everything goes as planned, Musharraf will be re-elected.

The opposition parties appear to be in a disarray after the deportation of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to Jeddah on September 10 and the announcement by Bhutto that she should would return home from self exile on October 18,after the Presidential poll.

The parties appear to be banking on the Supreme Court to decide on the legality of Musahrraf's re-election plans.

Much to the relief of the government, however, Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has already opted out of the hearing of the petition filed by Jamate Islami, leader, Qazi Hussain Ahmed questioning Musharraf's holding of dual office.

It would be heard by a nine-member bench headed by Justice Rana Bhagwandas, the only Hindu judge to have reached the top echelons of Pakistan's judiciary.

Ahmed's petition would come up for hearing from September 17.

The PML-Q said it would field Musharraf's wife, Sehba as covering candidate for her husband in case of any adverse order from the court restraining him from contesting the election.

Meanwhile speculation was rife over the meeting of Musharraf's Chief of Staff, Gen Hamid Javed with justice Chaudhry in the judge's office here on Friday.

This was the second meeting which many here believe was aimed at mending fences with the chief justice.

Musharraf had suspended Chaudhry accusing him of abuse of power which was led to a mass agitation by lawyers but be was subsequently re-instated by the apex court.