WITH the Supreme Court judgment dismissing the opposition’s petitions on the dual office issue on Friday, the way is clear for President Pervez Musharraf to contest the Oct 6 election to the nation’s highest office. Coming after weeks of a constitutional and legal battle, the six-to-three judgment dashes the opposition’s hope and disappoints those who find the very idea of a man in uniform contesting a presidential election repugnant. Nevertheless, the doomsday scenario is now behind us. President Musharraf must now abide by the pledge he made to the Supreme Court that “if elected” he would give up his army post before taking a fresh oath of office. The full judgment will be written later, but going by what the judges had said during the hearing, the 17th Amendment seems to have been a major consideration. The MMA leadership must blame itself for a bad bargain while voting for the 17th amendment, for it made the entire Legal Framework Order part of the Constitution in exchange for such minor concessions as those relating to the NSC, the judges’ age and action under 58-2(b) being made justiciable.

The SC judgment went against the opposition by a technicality under article 184-3. For that reason, the opposition has two options: one, it can restart the legal process but with a new constitutional basis; two, when the new assemblies meet the opposition parties can forge unity among themselves, create a united front and then force President Musharraf out of office by forging the necessary majority laid down in the Constitution. Indeed, what follows Friday’s judgment is going to be crucial in the context of the orderly holding of the presidential election. All along, the two sides have to keep one aim in view — the democratic process must be advanced. The post-judgment scenario is both a challenge and an opportunity for the government and its opponents. By their epic struggle this summer, the lawyers made a major contribution to the cause of the judiciary’s independence and rule of law. This struggle must be pursued relentlessly, but in a way that does not cause a setback to constitutionalism or give an opportunity to extra-constitutional forces to queer the pitch for democracy. In one go, let us accept, Pakistan cannot make up for the 60 years it has lost in terms of democratic evolution.

With the constitutional tangle behind us, the issue now revolves round the opposition’s political strategy, especially its decision to quit the assemblies en bloc on Oct 2 and recommend the dissolution of the NWFP assembly. The latter issue is full of constitutional pitfalls, because of the (NWFP) opposition’s resolve to pre-empt the dissolution by bringing a vote of confidence against the chief minister. This would give time to the federal government to work out its strategy for securing a majority for Gen Musharraf when the vote is taken. Side by side some parties have threatened to lay siege to the provincial assembly. This is hardly going to help the opposition’s cause, because the show of force by the law enforcement agencies in Islamabad and the crackdown on opposition leaders make it amply clear that the government has no scruples about resorting to any tactics to have its way.