The Supreme Court of Pakistan is on a collision course with President Musharraf on four different counts. In this year’s turmoil the court has been a reassuring pillar in a disintegrating country, challenging the legal underpinnings of military rule, such as they are, while affirming the primacy of the Constitution. But the stakes are so high now that the court is beginning to seem like a political actor itself — and to enjoy the role.

Yesterday it seemed as if the first pair of judgments, on whether Musharraf was re-elected legimately last month while remaining head of the Army, and on whether he was entitled to grant Benazir Bhutto an amnesty from corruption charges, might be postponed again. They were expected tomorrow but Musharraf’s lawyers have asked for more time, which may push the verdict into next week.

The Chief Justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry, also said yesterday that he will look into the attempted murder of Bhutto two weeks ago, as the official inquiry had so far got nowhere, and scheduled a hearing for today. The suicide attack had “resulted in a very poor projection of Pakistan in the world community”, the court observed.

It has also challenged Shaukat Aziz, the Prime Minister, over the deportation of Nawaz Sharif, a former Prime Minister and head of the Pakistan Muslim League, the mainstream conservative party. When Sharif tried to return from exile in September he was bundled on to a plane to Jeddah. Britain, the US and, according to reports, Saudi Arabia itself have been pressing Musharraf to let Sharif return to campaign for elections due in January, but so far to no avail.

If Musharraf attempts to postpone those elections — and there have been rumblings this week that his team has considered the idea, given almost daily suicide bombs — then the court would have something to say, as it would on any attempt to declare a state of emergency.

Bhutto, the former Prime Minister and head of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), last night cancelled a planned trip abroad, amid rumours that Musharraf was planning to respond to an unfavourable Supreme Court judgment by imposing a state of emergency. She vowed to oppose any suspension of basic human rights.

In its appearance the court is a bastion of order in an unruly country. The gleaming white concrete building, set near the Parliament and President’s House (where Musharraf will have to move once he relinquishes his uniform), is one of those structures, neat as an architect’s model, by which Islamabad hopes to show that it is a proper capital city and Pakistan a country with proper institutions. Inside, at the heart of a maze of unmarked corridors and lifts, the chamber is a windowless atrium, half as wide as its ceiling.

It could be a modern European courtroom but the 11 justices sit under a portrait of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan, and attendants in white “Jinnah caps” squat or lounge on the side steps. All proceedings are in English, one of the two official languages but surely unsustainable as it is intelligible only to a tiny fraction.

Aitzaz Ahsan, a superstar among Pakistan’s trial lawyers, long associated with the PPP and opposition to military rule, has spent weeks arguing to the judges that Musharraf was not entitled to be re-elected for another five-year term while he retains his military role. “They have no way around my arguments,” he said, with the fluent confidence of his profession.

Among the 200 lawyers watching, some speculated that the court would fudge the result or offer a split panel. It was impossible for it to be impartial and merely interpret the Constitution, as it says it will. The confrontation between Musharraf and Chaudhry has become political, even personal. They point to Chaudhry’s move in reinstating some of the leaders of the radical Red Mosque in Islamabad, and allowing the mosque to challenge Musharraf’s demolition of its madrassa.

These four rulings will show whether the court will supervise a smooth transition to democracy or has taken as its goal the abrupt exit of Musharraf.

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