Source:
Telegraph.co.ukMusharraf's new court to give him 5-year term
By Isambard Wilkinson in Islamabad
Last Updated: 2:07am GMT 08/11/2007
Pakistan's Supreme Court is expected to declare within days that President Pervez Musharraf can legally stay in office for another five years.
Protests continue in the Pakistani capital Islamabad as former prime minister Benazir Bhutto met other opposition leaders
If this landmark endorsement emerges, it would clear the way for Gen Musharraf to end the state of emergency having secured his grip on power. Allies predict he would then resign as army chief, in accordance with Western demands, and allow elections to be held.
Gen Musharraf imposed emergency rule when the Supreme Court was about to strike down his re-election by the National Assembly last month on the grounds that the constitution forbids anyone from combining the offices of president and army chief.
Having seized emergency powers, Gen Musharraf immediately sacked the Chief Justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry, and purged other independent judges.
He has since packed the Court with new justices. So far nine have been enlisted, eight of whom duly struck down the last decision of the previous bench who had declared Gen Musharraf's order imposing emergency rule to be illegal.
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