| Former president Muhammad Rafique Tarar on Thursday claimed that he was still the legal president of the country. “I am still the president of Pakistan and will remain so until the assemblies elect a new president as prescribed in the Constitution,” he told reporters outside the Supreme Court, where he had come to express solidarity with the suspended chief justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. Tarar was removed by President General Pervez Musharraf on June 20, 2001. He said that a president was elected for five years and assemblies elected a new president under the Constitution after the expiry of his term in office. He said that he kept himself away from political parties in order to “maintain the sanctity of his office” and had only participated in the protests against the suspension of the CJP as a common citizen. |