Constitutionally-suspect presidential election in Pakistan Commentary
Constitutionally-suspect presidential election in Pakistan
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Ali Khan [Washburn University School of Law]: President Pervez Musharraf is determined to reclaim the Pakistan Presidency for another term of five years. Under Pakistan's Constitution, the President is elected by the members of an electoral college consisting of (a) the members of both Houses of the National Parliament; and (b) the members of the Provincial Assemblies. The Presidential election is scheduled to take place on October 6, during the holy month of Ramadhan. Numerous opposition leaders, who oppose the Presidential election, have been house arrested under preventive detention laws.

The timing of the Presidential election is the critical issue that divides the public and political elites. The President wishes to be re-elected by an electoral college that itself is up for elections in early 2008. The opposition argues that, consistent with democratic principles, the President must be elected by the incoming electoral college that will begin to function after the 2008 General Elections for both national and provincial assemblies. The opposition further argues that the outgoing electoral college lacks the democratic mandate to choose a President for the next term.

The Pakistan Supreme Court has been petitioned to scrap the constitutionally-suspect Presidential election on October 6. President Musharraf – who continues to simultaneously hold two offices, one military (he is still Army Chief) and the other civilian – has lost public confidence. His decisions to suspend the Supreme Court Chief Justice and deport a legitimate political opponent, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, have tainted his good intentions for democracy. President Musharraf seems uncomfortable with credible political competition that constitutes the heart of authentic democracy.

The election for the highest office of the country must reflect the current will of the people expressed through their freely elected representatives. When the general election for a new electoral college is only months away, obtaining a new Presidential term from the outgoing electoral college comes across as manipulation of the political process. The Supreme Court may conclude that such a move is subversion of democracy and the Constitution.

Opinions expressed in JURIST Commentary are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JURIST's editors, staff, donors or the University of Pittsburgh.
THIS DAY @ LAW

Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his Letter from Birmingham Jail

On April 16, 1963, an incarcerated Martin Luther King, Jr. (arrested for demonstrating in defiance of a court order) wrote his Letter from Birmingham Jail in response to a published statement by eight fellow clergymen from Alabama.

Part of the letter read: We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we stiff creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging dark of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross-county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness" then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience. Read the full text of the Letter.

Former communist countries admitted for EU accession

On April 16, 2003, the 2003 Treaty of Accession was signed by 10 countries, admitting them for European Union (EU) ascension. After Malta and Cyprus, eight of the ten new EU nations (Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) were former communist countries. The signing of the treaty in Athens marked the first time that former members of the Soviet Bloc joined the EU.

Learn more about EU expansion from the organization's website.

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