ISLAMABAD: After embattled military ruler Pervez Musharraf's "one-sided" victory in the Presidential poll marred by the Opposition boycott, his future as well as that of Pakistan now hinged on Supreme Court's ruling on the validity of the election, Pakistani media said.
The influential Dawn said the 64-year-old military ruler, who brokered a last-minute deal with his adversary former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto to ensure that lawmakers of her Pakistan People's Party did not quit ahead of the polls, had won "a one-sided victory" from "a truncated parliamentary electoral college amid boycotts and protests".
But the "fate of the 55 per cent votes cast for him by his own loyalists still lay in the hands of the Supreme Court", which will hear petitions challenging his re-election bid while remaining as army chief on October 17.
"The government cannot afford to take the courts for granted," the Nation said which put out a cartoon of Musharraf looking at the Supreme Court with his fingers crossed.
The Daily Times said "What if the verdict is against President Musharraf seeking re-election from the same assemblies the second time.
The point is greatly obscured by the emotional pressure of the popular division on the subject in the country and the violence prone campaign launched by the opposition.
"It now remains to be seen whether the Supreme Court can find a solution that puts an end to the civil strife rather than precipitating another crises," it said.
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