Pakistan's Supreme Court, dominated by government-friendly judges since the imposition of emergency rule, has dismissed the main challenges to President Pervez Musharraf's re-election last month.
Once the court clears General Musharraf's October 6th victory, he has vowed to quit as army chief and become a civilian president, although he remains under fire from the opposition and Western allies for setting back democracy in nuclear-armed Pakistan.
A bench of 10 judges struck down the five main challenges to Gen Musharraf's right to contest the election while still army chief. The sixth and final petition will be heard on Thursday.
"The notification of the president's election cannot be issued because a petition is still pending. Hopefully, it will be done after that," Attorney-General Malik Qayyum said.
Gen Musharraf's main aim in taking emergency powers was to purge the Supreme Court of men he feared would annul his re-election. The Karachi stock market's main index rebounded more than 350 points from lows following the court's action to end Monday 1.2 per cent higher.
It is still nearly 5 per cent below pre-emergency levels, but 32 per cent up since the start of the year. During today's proceedings, judges warned lawyers they faced contempt charges and cancellation of their licences if they persisted in challenging the legality of Gen Musharraf's new bench.
"You're taking it lightly, but you don't know that your licence can be cancelled and strict action can be taken against you," Justice Nawaz Abbasi told a lawyer acting for Wajihuddin Ahmed, a former chief justice, who had run against Gen Musharraf.
Yesterday Gen Musharraf said he was asking the Election Commission to call a parliamentary election on January 8th. But he gave no date for lifting the state of emergency, despite hearing from US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte on Saturday that the election's credibility would suffer unless the emergency announced on November 3rd was rolled back