Pakistan will hold elections by Feb. 15, state media quoted Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf as saying yesterday, as he moved to quell global outrage over his imposition of a state of emergency.
The statement came hours after US President George W. Bush telephoned Musharraf to urge him to repeal emergency rule, hold polls that were due in January and quit as army chief of the nuclear-armed Islamic republic.
Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto however pledged to continue with a planned protest today in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, calling Musharraf's announcement "vague."
"General elections in the country would be held by February 15 next year," the official Associated Press of Pakistan quoted Musharraf as saying after chairing a meeting of the National Security Council.
State television also reported that Musharraf renewed his pledge to give up his military uniform before taking the oath for his second term in office, but did not give a date.
Musharraf however will not take the oath and quit the army until the Supreme Court rules on the validity of his victory in an Oct. 6 presidential election that gave him another five-year term.
Government fears that the court verdict could go against him are thought to be the main reason that he declared the emergency, but Musharraf has since purged the court of hostile judges, including the chief justice.
Musharraf imposed the state of emergency on Saturday, citing growing Islamic militancy and a "meddlesome" judiciary. He suspended the Constitution and clamped curbs on the media.
The report of an election date came hours after the attorney general, Malik Mohammad Qayyum, said that the polls would be in February.
"Elections will be held in February, it has been decided," said attorney general Qayyum, the government's chief lawyer. "The emergency will be lifted in one or two months."
However, Pakistani police stepped up a crackdown on the opposition, rounding up hundreds of Bhutto's supporters and charging four people with treason -- an offense punishable by death.
Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party said its activists were targeted to head off today's protest in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad, and a planned "long march" from Lahore to the capital next week.
"Well over 600 party activists have been arrested and many of our leaders have gone underground. The crackdown is continuing," senior party leader Raza Rabbani said.
Police sources confirmed the arrests of only 140 PPP workers.
Police warned that suicide bombers had infiltrated Rawalpindi ahead of Bhutto's protest.
"We have very specific intelligence reports that up to eight suicide bombers have entered Rawalpindi," city police chief Saud Aziz said.
"Naturally they will target big public meetings like what you have seen in Karachi," he added.
Twin suicide blasts killed 139 people in Karachi at Bhutto's Oct. 18 homecoming parade, which ended her eight years in exile.
Many in Pakistan however regard Bhutto's confrontational stance with scepticism, expecting she will still reach a proposed power-sharing deal with Musharraf.
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS