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Musharraf promises to quit army, hold elections

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.
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