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ISLAMABAD : Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf Friday amended the constitution to further legitimise his emergency rule, a day before lifting the state of emergency in the country, officials said.
Musharraf issued a constitutional amendment order late Friday which exempt him from getting parliamentary ratification for imposition of November 3 emergency rule, attorney general Malik Mohammad Qayyum told AFP.
"The amendments relate to presidential election procedure, others are related to establishment of Islamabad High Court, oath of judges and pension benefits to judges who refused to take oath," Qayyum said, also referring to Musharraf's earlier decision to handpick judges.
"Whatever amendments are made in the constitution do not need ratification from the parliament," he said.
"The emergency will be lifted before 1.00pm on Saturday," Qayyum said.
This is the second time that Musharraf has amended the constitution since he imposed emergency rule on November 3.
"The new order reinforces the earlier one," Qayyum added.
On November 21 Musharraf issued the first order to amend the constitution to stipulate that imposition of emergency "is declared to have been validly made" and "shall not be called in question in any court or forum on any ground whatsoever."
All other decisions made in relation to emergency rule "shall... be deemed to be and always to have been validly made," added the earlier order.
Musharraf will address the nation live on television and radio Saturday after lifting the emergency rule he imposed on November 3, his spokesman said Friday.
Musharraf drew international criticism for imposing a state of emergency as he faced a raft of legal challenges to his October re-election, a move that saw thousands of people rounded up and put in jail.
"The president will address the nation after lifting the emergency," spokesman Rashid Qureshi told AFP. He declined to give details of Musharraf's speech.
State-run Associated Press of Pakistan said Musharraf would address the nation at 8:00pm (1500 GMT).
Musharraf will lift the emergency on Saturday but critics say that with only three weeks left to campaign for parliamentary elections, and dozens of those arrested still in detention, the move will make little practical difference.
- AFP /ls
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