KARACHI/ISLAMABAD, Oct 1: Faryal Talpur, the cover candidate for PPP’s Makhdoom Amin Faheem, challenged the acceptance of President Pervez Musharraf’s nomination papers in the Sindh High Court on Monday.

And in Islamabad, two petitions were filed in the Supreme Court, requesting it to stay the presidential poll scheduled for Oct 6.

Ms Faryal, district nazim of Nawabshah, says that General Musharraf was not qualified to contest the Oct 6 election because he was holding an office of profit in the service of Pakistan as army chief.

In fact, according to her, he could not contest the election before lapse of two years after relinquishing his army post. His candidature was in conflict with Articles 41, 62 and 63 of the Constitution, yet the Chief Election Commissioner had declared him eligible, overruling objections raised by other candidates.

The petitioner has also challenged the Election Commission notification of Sept 10, which excludes the presidential candidates from the purview of Article 63, which enumerated the disqualification of candidates.

An application accompanying the petition requests the court to suspend the operation of the Election Commission notifications of Sept 29 and Oct 1. Another application seeks constitution of a larger bench comprising at least five judges to hear the petition. The petitioner’s counsel, Adnan Karim, sought Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed’s permission for the petition’s preliminary hearing by the division bench headed by him. The CJ asked him to submit his application on Tuesday for assignment of the petition before his bench.

The petitions in the Supreme Court were filed by Shahid Orakzai and Wasim Rehan. Presidential candidates Justice (retd) Wajihuddin Ahmed and Makhdoom Amin Fahim, could not file petitions challenging General Musharraf’s candidature because they did not get certified copies of the Election Commission’s notification.

Justice (retd) Tariq Mahmood, one of the counsel for Justice Wajihuddin Ahmed, and PPP spokesperson Farhatullah Babar said they had obtained the relevant documents and would file their petitions on Tuesday.

Shahid Orakzai has requested the court to hold that the National Assembly could not elect the president more than once and that the provincial assemblies could not be denied their share in the electoral college of the presidential poll.

He has urged the court to instruct the CEC to hold the election to the office of the president within 30 days of the general election in accordance with Article 41 (4) of the Constitution.

He requested the Court to advise the CEC to withhold the process of election until the disposal of the petition.

He said Article 224(4) of the Constitution ruled out any election to the assembly in the last 120 days. The petition said the constitutional authority of the National Assembly could not extend beyond its term as defined by Article 52 and, similarly, the constitutional authority of the provincial assemblies did not extend beyond its term as laid down in Article 107.

Wasim Rehan in his petition said that the decision to hold presidential polls at this stage would not resolve the serious crisis of legitimacy Gen Musharraf was facing and would exacerbate the political polarisation.

The petitioner prayed the court to stay the presidential election in the larger national interest.