ISLAMABAD, Jan 18: The government denied in the Senate on Thursday that the cabinet had decided to get President Pervez Musharraf re-elected by the present parliament and provincial assemblies, calming down a protesting opposition that vowed to resist such a move.

But the ruling coalition reaffirmed its position inside and outside the upper house that, under the constitution, the next presidential election must fall between Sept 15 and Oct 15 during the lifetime of the present assemblies elected in 2002 for five years and that General Musharraf would be its candidate.

Opposition leader Raza Rabbani raised the issue on the basis of media reports that quoted Information and Broadcasting Minister Mohammad Ali Durrani as telling a news conference on Wednesday that a cabinet meeting the same day had decided to have President Musharraf re-elected by the present assemblies.

Mr Rabbani described the reported `decision’ as unconstitutional and based on `political bankruptcy’ and said if it were true, the opposition parties would resist it inside and outside parliament and could exercise the option of resigning from the assemblies before such a vote was taken.

But it was after some angry shouting between the opposition and treasury benches and a repeated query from the house presiding officer at the time, former law minister Khalid Ranjha of the ruling PML, that first Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Kamil Ali Agha and later Mr Durrani came out with denials of the media reports that the cabinet had taken such a decision.

"It is not the job of the cabinet to take such a decision. It is for the Election Commission to decide when to hold an election," Mr Durrani said.

He said the cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, was briefed about constitutional provisions for the presidential election and `nothing more than that had happened’.

"If newspapers had drawn some other inferences, I am not responsible," he added, drawing some words of satisfaction from the opposition leader.

The minister offered to present in the house the recordings of his Wednesday's news conference to prove his point.

After the house was adjourned until 10am on Friday, the official APP news agency quoted Mr Durrani as telling a news conference that General Musharraf would be the joint candidate of the PML and its allies for the next presidential term.

Before that, when Mr Durrani was not present in the house, Mr Kamil Ali Agha said the issue of next general election to be held `in January next year’ had come up before the cabinet and that the prime minister's Senior Adviser Sharifuddin Pirzadahad told the meeting that the presidential election would be `due after Sept 15’.

Leader of the House Wasim Sajjad earlier drew opposition protests when he only quoted the constitutional provision that election to the office of president must be held `not earlier than 60 days and not later than 30 days’ before the expiration of the term of an incumbent rather than confirming or denying the reported cabinet ‘decision’.

Under this provision, he said, the presidential election must be held between Sept 25 and Oct 25 before the expiration of the present five-year term.

PPP's Senator Babar Awan intervened to tell the house that Gen Musharraf would not be qualified to contest the presidential election because he was holding an office of profit as Chief of the Army Staff.

The day was also marked by a token opposition walkout to protest against Tuesday's deadly military missile strike against suspected militants in South Waziristan after a pro-MMA senator from the area, Saleh Shah, told the house that the early morning attack targeted only local woodcutters working there.