Presidential election today: don't notify result till decision on petitions, Supreme Court orders ECP

The Supreme Court on Friday allowed the Chief Election Commissioner to go ahead with the polling for the election for President as per schedule on Saturday but forbade it from issuing notification of the returned candidate till the final decision of the petitions against General Musharraf.
The Senate, National Assembly and four provincial assemblies are the electoral college for the election of the President for a five-year term. Two presidential candidates Amin Fahim and Wajihuddin Ahmad have petitioned for postponement of the polling till the court decision. The 10-member bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Justice Javed Iqbal, heard counsel for the petitioners, the President, the federal government, and the Attorney General for two days and gave its unanimous verdict on Friday as under:
"Having heard the learned counsel for the parties at some length, it is unanimously resolved and directed that the election process already commenced shall continue as per the schedule notified by the Chief Election Commission of Pakistan, but the final notification of the election of the returned candidate shall not be issued till the final decision of these petitions. The main petitions shall be set down for hearing on 17.10.2007."
Attorney General Malik Mohammad Qayyum and counsel for the Federation Waseem Sajjad hailed the court verdict as their success on several counts as follows :
(a) The ten member bench has unanimously dismissed the stay applications and allowed the election process to continue.
(b) The court has not rejected the nomination papers, and allowed General Musharraf to contest the election in uniform.
(c) The court has not declared the impugned amendments made by the CEC in the election rules as ultra vires.
(d) The CEC has not been restrained from announcing the result of Saturday's polling.
(e) The court has accepted the current assemblies as the valid electoral college for the election of the President.
Qayyum and Sajjad said that the court had accepted all suggestions of the government. Only a formal, official notification will not be issued. "President Musharraf can hold the office till November 15, and the decision of these petitions will be announced before that date," Qayyum said.
Tariq Mahmood,counsel for Wajihuddin, described the court verdict as "half victory" as the court did not give Musharraf a clean chit, and restrained issuance of notification of the successful candidate. Lawyers for Amin Fahim said that the decision was "not a setback" but rather it was in favour of the opposition lawyers.
A former chief justice of the Supreme Court, Sajjad Ali Shah, described the court ruling as the best under the prevailing circumstances. However, some political analysts said that despite Saturday's polling for the election of the President, political uncertainty would not end, and despite majority of votes, General Musharraf would not be declared as elected till a decision on the main petitions, which might take more than a month.
The bench comprised Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday, Justice Mohammad Nawaz Abbasi, Justice Faqir Mohammad Khokhar, Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jilani, Justice Nasirul Mulk, Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmad, Justice Jamshed Ali and Justice Ghulam Rabbani.