Rejecting President Pervez Musharraf's stand that he would quit as Army Chief after his re-election, Pakistan's opposition parties, including Pakistan People's Party of former Premier Benazir Bhutto with whom he held power-sharing talks, on Tuesday said the General cannot contest polls in uniform.
Musharraf's plans to seek re-election from the present assemblies is contrary to the law as term of the assemblies expires by October 15, Raza Rabbani of PPP, the leader of the Opposition in the Senate, said.
"How can those assembles elect a man for five years when their own time expires in a few weeks," he said.
Besides, the law does not allow a man in uniform to contest elections to the office of the President, Rabbani said reacting to Musahrraf's undertaking to the Supreme Court that he would quit as Army Chief after his re-election and would take oath as a civilian President.
PPP leader Bhutto, who has pledged to return home from her self-imposed exile on October 18, had been negotiating a power-sharing deal with Musahrraf which she defended by saying that the talks were aimed at smooth transition from military dictatorship to democracy.
The All Pakistan Democratic Movement, headed by exiled former Premier Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) party, said Musharraf should not be allowed to contest in uniform.
"General Musharraf is not qualified to contest Presidential elections in uniform," PML-N Chairman Raja Zafar-ul Haq said.
Haq said no government servant can hold any public office for two years after his or her retirement.
"So he (Musharraf) is not qualified to submit nomination papers," Haq added.
APDM, whose members include Islamist alliance Muttahida Majlis-e Amal and cricketer-turned politician Imran Khan's Tehrik-e-Insaf party, had said that its legislators will quit en masse from the assemblies if Musharraf's nomination papers were accepted.
The alliance also decided that it will withdraw from governments in North West Frontier Province and southwestern Balochistan province as part of protest against Musharraf's bid for re-election even though reports said MMA general secretary Fazlur Rehman, whose party Jamaat Ulema Islami is in power in both the places, apparently was not ready to do so.
Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said Parliament, under an act in 2004, had allowed Musharraf to hold two offices till December, 2007.
"So, President Musharraf can take part in elections in uniform," he added.