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K J M Varma in Islamabad
Pakistan's Islamic fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami party has mounted a legal challenge to President Pervez Musharraf's bid to get elected to a five-year term through a referendum, by filing a petition in the country's supreme court questioning the constitutional validity of the move as well as the legitimacy of his presidency.
Jamaat leader Qazi Hussain Ahmed, recently released from a six month detention, filed a petition on Tuesday accusing Musharraf of unlawfully occupying the office of the nation's president by transgressing the legal framework set by the supreme court while legitimising the October, 1999, military coup.
The supreme court, while conferring legitimacy on the military ruler's coup set a three year deadline for him to hand over power to an elected government.
The deadline expires in October this year.
The court also directed that the Musharraf government not effect any major constitutional change.
In his petition, Ahmed said the military ruler's act of declaring himself as president after ousting incumbent Rafiq Tarar in June last year was itself unlawful and illegal and requested the court to reinstate Tarar as president.
The Jamaat chief had been arrested for opposing Musharraf's decision to allow the United States to launch its offensive in Afghanistan.
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