ISLAMABAD (AFP) — Pakistan's top court Friday gave military ruler Pervez Musharraf until December 1 to hang up his uniform and take a new oath of presidential office as a civilian.
In written rulings a day after dismissing the final challenges against his re-election, the Supreme Court also urged him to lift the state of emergency "at the earliest."
The rulings give a clear timetable for Musharraf to fulfill his commitment to step down as head of the military, a move that may go some way to placating an international community outraged by his emergency rule.
That anger saw Pakistan suspended from the Commonwealth on Thursday, sparking an angry reaction from the foreign ministry which called the action "unreasonable and unjustified."
Musharraf, who grabbed power in a bloodless 1999 coup, had vowed to resign as army chief and become a civilian leader after receiving formal notification of his October 6 election victory.
The notice issued by the Supreme Court ordered the election commission and government "to take all necessary steps by December 1" to announce the formal result.
"Within a week he is going to take oath as a civilian president," Attorney General Malik Mohammad Qayyum told AFP afterwards.
"The court orders that he should revoke emergency at the earliest. It will have some effect," he said, although it was unlikely to be lifted as early as next week.
Musharraf, who declared a state of emergency on November 3, has been under intense international pressure to cancel the measures, shed his army uniform, release all political prisoners and hold free elections.
The Supreme Court -- stacked with loyalist judges -- also Friday dismissed challenges to his emergency rule, agreeing it was a justified measure.
It virtually repeated Musharraf's words at the time: that terror attacks, suicide bombings and kidnappings had destabilised Pakistan and the government was "paralysed" in its response by the "judicial activism" of certain senior judges.
However the Commonwealth said at a summit in Uganda that it was suspending Pakistan for a second time because of its "serious violation" of the group's core values.
The Pakistani foreign ministry hit back, saying the emergency was needed to avert a crisis and warning that restoration of democracy would be "determined by ground realities and legal requirements in Pakistan rather than unrealistic demands from outside."
That cut little ice with Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon.
"You can be assured that every country that has been suspended will say we didn't understand the unique circumstances that prevailed in their country at the time," he said. "We think we did."
Pakistan was first suspended from the 53-nation grouping of mainly British former colonies in 1999 when Musharraf seized power.
Its exclusion then lasted five years.
Under intense international pressure, more than 5,000 political opponents, lawyers and party activists have been freed since the emergency on November 3 and elections set for January 8.
However the emergency is still firmly in place and sacked judges are under guard.
Former Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif, who was ousted in 1999 by Musharraf, will make a fresh attempt to return from exile in the next four or five days, an aide said.
Sharif was due Friday to meet King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, where he has been living in exile, to discuss plans for his return.
He had flown back to Pakistan on September 10 but was deported to Jeddah by Pakistani authorities just four hours later.
Opposition leaders are split on whether to boycott the January 8 vote and will confer Saturday on a joint strategy.
Former premier Benazir Bhutto, the leader of Pakistan's largest opposition party, gave her candidates the go-ahead to file nomination papers but warned they may still pull out.
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