Source: BBC Website

Lawyers have led anti-emergency rule protests in Islamabad

Pakistan will hold elections before 15 February, state television has quoted President Pervez Musharraf as saying. Gen Musharraf has been under pressure to honour the parliamentary poll date, originally scheduled for January, since imposing emergency rule on Saturday.

He said he declared the state of emergency because of militant violence and an unruly judiciary.

On Wednesday, US President George W Bush telephoned Gen Musharraf to urge him to hold elections soon.

Mr Bush also told Gen Musharraf he could not be both army head and president.

Pakistan state TV said Gen Musharraf had chaired a meeting of the National Security Council and said: “General elections in the country will be held by February 15 next year… It was my commitment and I am fulfilling it.”

You can’t be the president and the head of the military at the same time President Bush to Gen Musharraf

The reports also said Gen Musharraf had renewed a pledge to quit as head of the army before taking the oath for his new term as president.

However, no date was given for him to step down.

Earlier on Thursday, Pakistan’s attorney general, Malik Mohammad Qayyum, quoted by AFP news agency, also said elections would be held in February.

Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, head of the main opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), said the new pledges did not go far enough.

She said: “We want an election date, we want a retirement date… This is a vague statement. We want the uniform off by November 15.”

Earlier the PPP said more than 700 members had been arrested overnight ahead of a huge public rally planned for Rawalpindi, close to the capital, Islamabad, on Friday.

‘Indispensable ally’

Thursday’s TV statement came hours after Mr Bush’s phone call to Gen Musharraf.

Gen Musharraf imposed emergency rule after months of unrest

The US president said: “My message was that we believe strongly in elections and that you ought to have elections soon and you need to take off your uniform.

“You can’t be the president and the head of the military at the same time, so I had a very frank discussion with him.”

But Mr Bush also noted that Gen Musharraf had been an “indispensable ally”.

Ms Bhutto has been a key focus for opposition to emergency rule, insisting that Gen Musharraf restore the constitution, hold elections and resign as head of the army.

She is also demanding the release of lawyers, judges and activists detained in the past few days.

Benazir Bhutto wants elections to be held on schedule

However, the BBC’s Barbara Plett in Islamabad says other major opposition parties have not responded to Ms Bhutto’s call for united action.

The authorities have warned that police will not allow the Rawalpindi demonstration to go ahead.

Rawalpindi mayor Javed Akhlas said: “We will ensure that they don’t violate the ban on rallies, and if they do it, the government will take action according to the law.”

He told the Associated Press news agency there was a “strong threat” of another suicide bomb attack against Ms Bhutto, who survived an assassination attempt in Karachi on 18 October that killed more than 140 people.

Meanwhile, five new people in Karachi have been charged with sedition for allegedly making comments and distributing leaflets against emergency rule.

Hasil Bizinjo and Ayub Qureshi, two leaders of a Baloch grouping, the National Party, Yusuf Mastikhan of the National Workers’ Party and union leaders Farid Awan and Yusuf Sahi were formally charged on Thursday and remanded in custody for two weeks.

A lawyer for the Baloch politicians, Arif Mohammad Khan, told the BBC the police report charged them with raising anti-government slogans and inciting people to violence in a gathering outside the Karachi Press Club on Tuesday.

Eight lawyers who are at large, including one woman, were charged with sedition in the city on Wednesday.

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