Election 2013: Supreme Court advises counsel to raise objections to Musharraf's intent

Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry advised A K Dogar, one of the lawyer for petitioner Dr Mubashar Hassan, to raise at a relevant forum objections to former President Pervez Musharraf's intent to contest elections in spite of violating the Constitution on 3rd November 2007.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed amendments to Dr Hassan's petition on the implementation of the court's judgement on conducting free, fair, and transparent general elections. Heading a three-member bench, the Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry heard the constitutional petition of Dr Hassan against pre-poll rigging and application of Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution in relation to qualification of candidates for national and provincial assemblies.
During the course of proceedings, the Chief Justice observed that the objective of the petition was to ensure implementation of Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution, maintaining that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) knew better how to apply both the Articles in letter and in spirit. He further remarked that directives had already been issued to the ECP to provide constitutional guarantee to voters' right to access candidates' data.
The Chief Justice categorically stated that the court could enact a law or issue a standard operating procedure (SOP) in the matter and added that the court was unaware of any voter's objection against any candidate. Azhar Siddique, one of the counsel for the petitioner, accused the ECP of concealing facts with respect to verification of degrees. The Chief Justice asked him to identify those who provided inaccurate information to the Commission so that the court could summon them for prosecution. The hearing of the case was adjourned for one week.