More than 80 opposition members of Pakistan’s parliament resigned today in an attempt to undermine President Musharraf’s plans to be re-elected in a poll on Saturday.

Two other candidates in the election also lodged complaints in the Supreme Court arguing that General Musharraf, who seized power in a coup in 1999, was ineligible to run while still serving as army chief.

The two moves were the opposition’s last-ditch efforts to block General Musharraf’s plans to cling on to power despite a huge slump in popularity since he tried to sack the Chief Justice in March.

Neither is likely to succeed as the Supreme Court dismissed similar legal challenges on Friday and General Musharraf’s supporters have a majority in the electoral college that chooses the President.

But by resigning from the two houses of the national parliament and four provincial assemblies that make up the college, opposition lawmakers hope to deny the election any legitimacy. “These resignations are against dictatorship," Fazal-ur-Rehman, leader of the opposition and secretary-general of the Islamic Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal alliance, told reporters. "If this house votes for Musharraf, it would have no political value and the president himself would have no value in the eyes of the people."

Chaudhry Amir Hussain, the Speaker of the National Assembly, said that he had received the resignations of 85 members of the 342-seat lower house of parliament.

The Pakistan People’s Party, the biggest opposition party, is expected to decide whether to join the walkout in the next two days. A PPP spokesman told The Times that Benazir Bhutto, the exiled former Prime Minister who leads the party, was chairing a meeting in London today to discuss the issue. “If Musharraf runs for re-election in uniform, the PPP will seriously consider resigning from parliament,” Farhatullah Babar, a PPP senator, said.

He said that Ms Bhutto, who fled Pakistan in 1999 to escape corruption charges, was still planning to return to Pakistan on October 18 despite fears that she would be arrested immediately.

The PPP’s candidate, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, is one of two people approved by the Election Commission to run against General Musharraf in Saturday's election. The other is Wajihuddin Ahmad, a respected former Supreme Court judge who was sacked for refusing to endorse General Musharraf’s coup.

Lawyers for the two candidates filed two petitions with the Supreme Court today arguing that General Musharraf could not run while still serving as army chief.

General Musharraf, a key US ally in the battle against terrorism, has promised to shed his uniform after being re-elected but is expected to maintain strong influence over the armed forces.

The military announced today that General Ashfaq Kiyani, the former head of the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence Agency, had been designated General Musharraf’s successor as army chief.

General Kiyani is regarded as a close ally of General Musharraf, but is also well regarded by Western military officials and has been the point man for co-operation in the War on Terror.

Pakistan has 90,000 troops deployed along the porous border with Afghanistan and in its northwestern tribal areas where Taleban and al-Qaeda militants are regrouping.

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