Source: The Daily Times
By Irfan Ghauri

ISLAMABAD: President General Pervez Musharraf has told government parliamentarians that he will not decide on when to hold general elections “under dictation from the US”.

“The president told the parliamentarians that he was under pressure from the West and the United States to hold elections as per schedule, but he made it clear that the decision would be taken in the best interest of the country,” said a minister who attended the special meeting of the ruling coalition called by the president on Wednesday.

The president gave no specific timeframe for holding elections and removing his uniform, only saying they would be held “as soon as possible”, the minister said.

SC link: Other sources privy to the meeting said the president linked both issues - uniform and elections - with the finalisation of Supreme Court cases challenging his re-election. Gen Musharraf also gave no timeframe for lifting the state of emergency. “Lifting the state of emergency with out achieving the declared objectives would make the whole exercise futile,” one parliamentarian quoted him as saying Tariq Azeem, minister of state for information, said once the Supreme Court gives its final verdict on the cases against Gen Musharraf, the EC would officially notify him as the winner of the presidential election. He would then take oath as president, before which Gen Musharraf has pledged to take off his uniform. The minister said Gen Musharraf had given no date for taking oath.

Parliamentarians’ views: A majority of the parliamentarians were of the view that delaying elections would be “politically fatal”, the sources said. One source said Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao and Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar opined that early elections could not be held because of security concerns in NWFP. Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri and Textiles Minister Mushtaq Cheema were said to have advocated early elections.

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