Pakistan's Supreme Court began hearing a last-ditch opposition bid to block military president Pervez Musharraf's re-election as a possible ally, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, was due to decide her election strategy.
General Musharraf, a major US ally and leader of nuclear-armed Pakistan since he took power in a 1999 coup, looks set to win re-election on Saturday in votes by the two-chamber parliament and four provincial assemblies.
But General Musharraf has lost popularity since trying to sack the country's top judge in March and still needs to bolster his support, especially because his ruling coalition is expected to lose its majority in a general election due by mid-January.
Self-exiled Ms Bhutto, who has been in talks with General Musharraf, was due to meet party officials in London today to decide whether to join an opposition boycott of the presidential vote. Yesterday, the government said it had decided to drop corruption charges against her.
General Musharraf has promised to quit as army chief if he is re-elected and serve his new term as a civilian. He nominated a successor as army chief yesterday, the clearest sign yet he would keep his vow and leave the army.
In a major boost to General Musharraf last week, the Supreme Court dismissed challenges to his re-election while army chief. Nevertheless, his opponents have launched new legal challenges to block his re-election, arguing that as army chief he is ineligible and that anyway the presidential vote should be held after general elections.
The Supreme Court took up the casetoday but the session was briefly adjourned when a judge, who had taken part in the hearing into the challenges dismissed last week, said he did not want to sit on the nine-member bench hearing the case.
A reconstituted, eight-member bench later began considering the case.