e of his own choice, the General had already started with the process of engineered democracy, thus ensuring that the question of legitimacy which haunts every dictator is put to rest.
             Naturally, the military coup, the self-proclamation of the General as the Chief Executive of and the promulgation of the PCO were issues that were going to be challenged in the Supreme Court. Justice Irshad headed the full-bench that was going to hear the case against General Musharraf in the Supreme Court. He provided the General with the legal cover for the justification of his regime and a time-period for the regime's existence that no one could later challenge. He also gave Musharraf the rights to re-write the Constitution in the final verdict of the case, barring the salient features of the Constitution, federalism, parliamentary form of democracy, Islamic provisions of the Constitution and independence of the judiciary. The power to re-write the Constitution has eventually turned out to probably be the most significant clause of the judgment dished out
             Other significant developments in the earlier half of his regime also included the exile of the Sharif family to Saudi Arabia, the formation of the Quaid-e-Azam faction of the Pakistan Muslim League, headed by Mian Mohammed Azhar, with the Chauhadrys of Gujrat in pivotal positions in the party and local body elections under the plan for the devolution of power.
             The most significant other development during Musharraf's regime was the Presidential Referendum in May 2002. Justice Irshad Hassan Khan acted yet again as the pawn in Musharraf's army, and was the Chief Election Commissioner for the Referendum. "The military claimed that nearly 70 percent of eligible voters cast ballots, 98 percent in favor of Musharraf, the results of the fraudulent polling process seem to have done more to betray the general's guilty conscience than to cement his claim to power. What international ...