Washington, Feb 26: The United States has questioned the legitimacy of the extraordinary power President Pervez Musharraf wields in Pakistan and said the credibility of that country's judiciary was "low".
In its annual report on human rights released yesterday, the US State Department doubts over the independence of the Pakistani Supreme Court which sanctioned Musharraf's bloodless coup against the elected government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 1999 and the functioning of the Court since.
The report notes four months after General Musharraf overthrew the Sharif government, the Supreme Court sanctioned the coup but asked him to hold a referendum. Four months after the referendum, President Musharraf transferred substantial executive power from the prime minister to the previously symbolic presidency.
"Opposition, politicians, lawyers, civil society groups, and many in the international community," said the report, have "expressed concern about the amendment package and its constitutional legitimacy." The Supreme Court, said the report, demonstrated "a limited degree of independence" but "the overall credibility of the judiciary remained low." Bureau Report