Federal Minister for Law, Justice and Human Rights Wasi Zafar has said that if not dissolved earlier, the present assemblies will elect the new president since the 5-year term of President General Pervez Musharraf and the assemblies expires on the same day and office of the president cannot remain vacant even for a day.
Talking to newsmen here on Thursday, he said that there was no bar on the president to hold two offices ie President of Pakistan, and Chief of Army Staff for the second term under the Act of Holding Two Offices,
Wasi Zafar clarified that if elections were held after dissolution of assemblies under Article 58(2-B), then a caretaker government was necessary, but if elections were held under Article 224.
The minister read out Article 224 which says "a general election to the National Assembly or Provincial Assembly shall be held within a period of sixty days immediately preceding the day on which the terms of the Assembly is due to expire, unless the Assembly has been sooner dissolved, and the results of the election shall be declared not later than fourteen days before that day."
He said that term of the present assembly expires on the 16th November 2007, and if the present government holds the election on the 17th or 18th of November, 2007, there was no need for any "caretaker" or "interim" government. The law minister said that the opposition would have to accept the Constitution, democratic norms, values and traditions in their totality and not what suited them. "If they believe in democracy, then this government has the right to hold elections next day after completion of their stipulated term," he argued.
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