Karachi, April 27 :    Karachi, April 27:  Pakistan is going to elect its military dictator as its President. And its Supreme Court has said it is all right to do so. The Supreme Court's verdict came after an unprecedented sitting on a Saturday - the court does not normally sit on Saturdays. But today, a nine-member bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Sheikh Riaz Ahmad unanimously okayed the referendum. The Supreme Court, in its ruling, has held that it was premature at this stage to go into the legal and constitutional issues raised by the petitioners. It said the Referendum Order 2002, which was being challenged by the petitioners, was within the framework and jurisdiction of the powers conferred by the Supreme Court on General Pervez Musharraf in March 2000. The apex court was referring to its own judgment - which argued for the so-called 'doctrine of necessity' - upholding the military overthrow of the democratically elected government of the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. The petitions against the referendum had been filed among others by the Jamaat-e-Islami, the Supreme Court Bar Association and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz Sharif) - PML(N). Only yesterday, the Chief Justice of Pakistan had hinted at the shape of the court's judgment, saying the court would seek to strengthen the process of transition to democracy instead of disturbing it. Whether today's decision would lead to a transition to democracy is another matter. Now all the legal objections to the referendum have been set aside and Pakistan is readying to vote for the continuation of General Musharraf as President for another five years on coming Tuesday. But political objections to the method adopted by the general and his intentions remain unresolved. Broad sections of Pakistani society are critical of the method adopted by General Musharraf to perpetuate his rule. Not only the bigger political parties like the Pakistan Peoples Party and the PML(N) but even smaller religious parties, bar councils across the country, businessmen, the intelligentsia and the traditional Pakistani elite is critical of it. Only the state-sponsored parties like the Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-e-Azam) and smaller regional parties like the Muttahida Qaumi Movement in Sindh, the Awami National Party in the North West Frontier Province, the Baluchistan National Party are among the supporters of General Musharraf. However, nobody knows whether those opposing the referendum can mobilise enough people against it. But what is the referendum that has so deeply divided Pakistani society all about? Former Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Senator Taj Haider said: 'The real issue is not the referendum. The real issue is whether the army will continue to play a role in politics. This referendum is to consolidate that grip.' Haider claimed: 'The democratic struggle of the people of Pakistan has given them a political consciousness. This process is irreversible. So even those forces which, like the PML(N), had supported the last dictator, Zia-ul-Haq, are today a part of the broad national alliance against the army's role in politics. So that is the issue which has to be decided.' Karamat Ali, a veteran trade unionist and now director of the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research in this port city, agrees. 'This referendum is all about the army itself. The decision being made is whether Pervez Musharraf will continue as the army chief for the next five years or not. As the President, people were willing to let him be,' he argued. But what was not clear was whether the institution of the army would have allowed Musharraf to continue as the chief for the next five years or not, Ali said. Hence the need for the referendum, he argues. The second question which is being decided through the referendum, according to Ali, is whether the offices of the President and the Chief of the Army Staff can be combined into one. 'This is the real empowerment that Pervez Musharraf is seeking,' he claimed. General Musharraf has already declared his intention to continue as the army chief even after assuming a five-year presidency in the wake of the referendum. The MQM is one of the few political parties which is not opposing the referendum. Nasreen Jalil, a former Senator and MQM leader, said: 'By not giving a boycott call and by not asking our people to vote negatively, you might say that we are supporting the referendum. During Benazir Bhutto's and Nawaz Sharif's regime more than 1,500 MQM cadres were killed. Urban Sindh today supports Pervez Musharraf because during his regime the attacks on MQM cadres were minimal. But beyond that he has not helped us in any way.' Her husband, M.A. Jalil, a former education minister of Sindh and member of the co-ordination committee of the MQM, suggested it was a tactical move. 'We want some respite from the killings of our cadres. After all we have suffered at the hands of various government for the last 12 years. We need time to reorganise and get some breathing space for ourselves.'