Musharraf: Emergency Will End By Dec. 16

Pervez Musharraf promised Thursday to lift Pakistan's state of emergency by Dec. 16 and restore its constitution before January elections, a key demand of his domestic rivals and foreign backers.

In a televised speech hours after taking the oath of office, Musharraf also urged former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif - his two rivals for power who recently returned from exile - not to boycott the Jan. 8 parliamentary elections.

He said "a level playing field" has been given to their parties, and they and others should "participate fully."

"I am determined to lift the emergency by Dec. 16," Musharraf said, seated between a portrait of Pakistan's founding father, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, and a green-and-white national flag.

"The elections, God willing, will be held free and transparent under the constitution."

The opposition appeared split on how to react.

Sharif said his party and other smaller groups decided in principle at a meeting on Thursday to boycott the ballot.

"Musharraf took oath today by murdering the judiciary," he told reporters in the eastern city of Lahore.

Sharif reiterated his demand that judges ousted under the emergency be restored. But he said he would talk to Bhutto and a wavering Islamist leader before making a final decision.

Bhutto has said she is reluctant to leave the field open to pro-Musharraf parties and Makhdoom Amin Fahim, a key aide, said Thursday that she was still mulling what to do.

Musharraf imposed emergency rule on Nov. 3, casting Pakistan into a political crisis that raised Western fears for the stability of a nuclear-armed country struggling to turn a tide of Islamic militancy.

But having purged the Supreme Court of judges who might have blocked his plan to continue as president, the U.S.-backed leader has eased a wave of repression that saw thousands of opponents jailed and all independent news channels gagged.

On Wednesday, Musharraf stood down as military chief, the post which enabled him to topple Sharif in a 1999 coup and hold on to power for eight years.

But Musharraf insists his guiding hand is vital to prevent Pakistan plunging into chaos as it moves toward democracy, and on Thursday had himself sworn in to a new five-year presidential term.

"Congratulations, Mr. President," Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar said after administering the oath to Musharraf, who was dressed in a long black tunic rather than his more familiar army uniform.

Musharraf welcomed as "good" for political reconciliation the return from exile of his old foes, Bhutto and Sharif. However, no senior opposition leader was present at the ceremony.

A boycott would undercut Musharraf's effort to legitimize his rule through a democratic ballot. However, the president appeared to return to his usual bullish self after earlier blinking back tears as he ended his 46-year military career.

"This is a milestone in the transition of Pakistan to the complete essence of democracy," Musharraf told an audience of government officials, foreign diplomats and military generals.

"Anyone who is talking of any boycotts should hear this out: come hell or high water, elections will be held on Jan. 8. Nobody derails it."

Musharraf again sought to justify the emergency, after which he purged the Supreme Court just as it was about to issue a verdict on the legality of his continued rule. The retooled court last week gave its stamp of approval.

He accused former Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry of involvement in a "well thought-out conspiracy" to derail Pakistan's course toward democracy.

Musharraf also said that stepped-up military action had "broken the back of the spread of terrorism" in the northwest.

Still, a military spokesman said five soldiers died and four were injured in the region on Thursday when a roadside bomb exploded next to a passing convoy.

In the eastern city of Lahore, street clashes broke out between police and lawyers protesting against Musharraf's inauguration. Four lawyers and three officers were injured, police said.

About 400 demonstrators - chanting "Go, Musharraf, go!" and "Friends of Musharraf are traitors" - flung bricks and sticks at policemen who blocked their path as they tried to march from one court complex to another, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene.

Sharif had appointed Musharraf as army chief in 1998, just a year before the coup.

Musharraf has compared his uniform to a second skin that he was reluctant to shed, but on Wednesday, he finally ceded command to a hand-picked loyalist, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, who is expected to maintain the army's effort against Islamic militants.

Musharraf insists Western media misrepresent him as authoritarian, and the Western diplomats listening to Musharraf on Wednesday got a stinging rebuttal of the criticism.

"I personally feel that there is an unrealistic and maybe an impractical or impracticable obsession with your form of democracy, with your form of human rights, civil liberties," Musharraf said, claiming to speak for developing countries everywhere.

Pakistan wanted to attain those goals, but would need time and support to reach standards that others had built over centuries, he said.

"We will do it our way as we understand our society, our environment better than anyone in the West," he said.

CBS News' Farhan Bokhari reports that some analysts believe Musharraf cannot continue as such a strong leader without his command of the military. "With Musharraf now out of his uniform, his opponents will feel emboldened. Any army chief, of course, is much more powerful than a retired army chief," Hasan Askari Rizvi, a widely respected Pakistani political commentator, told Bokhari.

"The political opposition… will probably find reason to further unite against him. We are not looking at Musharraf being forced out of office as president any time soon. But the movement against him will gather momentum," Rizvi added.

Violent clashes broke out Thursday in the eastern city of Lahore between police and lawyers protesting against Musharraf's rule.

Demonstrators threw bricks, glasses and sticks at police who blocked the path of about 200 lawyers as they tried to march from one court complex to another, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene.

Some police officers picked up the missiles and threw them back at the lawyers, who were chanting slogans including "Go, Musharraf, go!" and "Friends of Musharraf are traitors!"

Musharraf's military retirement was part of what he hopes will be a smooth transition toward democracy, eight years after he seized power from Sharif in a bloodless coup.

However, he has secured a new term as president only after using his authority over the army to impose an emergency on Nov. 3, sweep away judges who might have stood in his way and silence most of his critics with arrests and a media gag.

In protest, opposition parties are threatening to boycott the Jan. 8 parliamentary elections - a move which could wreck the hopes of Musharraf's Western supporters for a stable, moderate government able to keep the pressure on al Qaeda and the Taliban.

"He got the verdict in his favor from a court which is not acceptable to the nation," Sharif said, who demanded a "complete rollback" to the situation before Nov. 3. "Unless the judiciary is restored... no matter what action he takes, we cannot compromise," he said.

Asked about Musharraf's retirement, White House press secretary Dana Perino said Wednesday that President Bush "certainly considers that to be a good step." But Perino reiterated that Mr. Bush wants Musharraf to lift the emergency order, and do so before the parliamentary elections.

Under the emergency, the former chief justice and other independent judges have been placed under house arrest. Their pliant replacements, including the new chief justice Dogar, approved Musharraf's controversial election victory last week.