Musharraf Resists Calls To End Emergency

Pakistan's military ruler said Sunday that parliamentary elections should be held on schedule, but that emergency rule would remain in place to ensure that the polls would be free and transparent.

"We should have elections before the 9th of January," President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said at a press conference, refusing to set a date for lifting emergency rule. "Certainly the emergency is required to ensure peace in Pakistan, to ensure an environment conducive to elections."

"The emergency contributes toward better law and order and a better fight against terrorism," he said, adding that it would "reinforce our hand" to use the regular army to fight Islamic militants in the troubled northwest and beyond.

"And therefore all I can say is, I do understand the emergency has to be lifted, but I cannot give a date."

Musharraf will please his Western allies with his announcement of early elections, but could worry them with his refusal to commit to a date for lifting the emergency, that many observers and critics here say is tantamount in martial law.

Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto called the announcement a "first positive step" but said it would be difficult to hold elections under emergency rule. She added that she had "not shut doors for talks" with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf. Other opposition parties said Musharraf's sweeping powers, which have led to thousands of arrests, would only make a mockery of the democratic process.

He declared it was necessary to address the "turmoil, shock and confusion" in Pakistan.

Also today, scores of demonstrators gathered outside the Islamabad offices of Pakistan's main independent broadcaster to voice their solidarity with the TV stations which have been blocked from broadcasting on cable networks across the country.

Demonstrators held black flags and banners saying "Freedom of press" and covered their faces and eyes with black cloth to symbolize the media curbs.

One of the protesters, retired civil servant Roedad Khan said: "Musharraf has to go because if he doesn't go Pakistan cannot survive. Pakistan cannot survive."

Musharraf has amended a law to give army courts sweeping powers to try civilians on charges ranging from treason to inciting public unrest, officials said Sunday, as key opposition leader Benazir Bhutto prepared to stage a 185-mile protest march in defiance of a ban.

Musharraf a week ago imposed the state of emergency he said was to help fight Islamic militancy. But the main targets of his crackdown have been his most outspoken critics, including the increasingly independent judiciary and media.

The army chief - under pressure from the United States and other Western allies to return to the path of democracy - won praise for agreeing Saturday to lift the emergency within weeks.

President Bush described promises to restore civilian rule as "positive," throwing Washington's support firmly behind the embattled Pakistani leader. The United States considers Musharraf a bulwark in the war on terrorism.

On Sunday, during a press conference in which he sounded indignant and sometimes angry, Musharraf said the declaration of the emergency was in the interests of Pakistan, not to save his own political skin.

"It was the most difficult decision I have ever taken in my life," said Musharraf, wearing a dark blue suit rather than his army fatigues.

"I could have preserved myself, but then it would have damaged the nation. I found myself between a rock and a hard surface. I have no personal ego and ambitions to guard. I have the national interest foremost," he said. "Whatever the cost, I bear responsibility, and I stand by it."

He also defended a decision to remove Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, the independent-minded chief justice, accusing him of corruption. Musharraf raised questions about everything from Chaudhry's travel and fuel bills to his choice of vehicle.

"The emergency contributes toward better law and order and a better fight against terrorism," the military ruler said, adding that it would "reinforce our hand" to use the regular army to fight Islamic militants in the interior of the troubled northwest, beyond lawless tribal regions of Afghanistan.

He also claimed the emergency would "ensure absolute, fair and transparent elections," and said that Pakistan would invite international observers to scrutinize the vote.

Musharraf said opposition supporters who had been arrested since the emergency would be released to take part in the polls, but warned they could be detained again.

Anyone who "disturbs law and order and wants to create anarchy in the name of elections and democracy, we will not allow that," Musharraf said.

Meanwhile, the decision to amend the Pakistan Army Act - confirmed by Attorney General Malik Mohammed Qayyum on Sunday - is likely to raise fresh concerns. It would allow military courts to try people accused of treason, sedition, or "giving statements conducive to public mischief."

In theory, that could include opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, who said she would defy Musharraf's ban on public gatherings and lead supporters on a march from the eastern city of Lahore to the capital Islamabad on Tuesday.

"When the masses combine, the sound of their steps will suppress the sound of military boots," Bhutto, a former prime minister, told hundreds of protesters Saturday, almost immediately after she was freed from 24 hours of house arrest.

Thousands of people have been arrested, TV news stations taken off air, and judges removed. On Saturday, three reporters from Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper were ordered to leave Pakistan for an editorial in the paper that used an expletive in an allusion to Musharraf, said Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azim.

In the northern city of Peshawar, where religious opposition parties dominate, protesters again took to the streets by the hundreds, reports CBS News correspondent Sheila MacVicar. Among those arrested was a former government minister.

To date the main targets of Musharraf's crackdown have been his most outspoken critics, including the increasingly independent judiciary and media.

Authorities have blacked out TV networks and threatened broadcasters with jail time for coverage but so far have spared the Internet and most newspapers.

Most people in Pakistan, where illiteracy is rife, get their news off TV or radio.

Shortly before the government suspended the constitution and the freedoms it guarantees, cable operators pulled the plug on domestic and international news channels including the BBC, CNN and Fox News. Only state Pakistan Television, or PTV, remains free to air.

The 20 private TV news channels that have mushroomed since Musharraf seized power in a 1999 coup have proved a double-edged sword for the general.

On the one hand, they have burnished his otherwise poor credentials on democratic reform and given people an alternative to staid PTV, a government mouthpiece.

But they have also provided running coverage, often live, of protests against him and of security forces' failing efforts to contain Islamic militants destabilising Pakistan.

The new power of Pakistan's media became clear during the popular movement against military rule after Musharraf tried to oust the independent-minded chief justice of the Supreme Court in the spring.

As Judge Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry toured the country and tens of thousands came out to greet him, it was beamed directly into people's homes: perhaps the first time in Pakistan's history that TV has shaken up its politics.

The Supreme Court reinstated Chaudhry in July, dealing Musharraf his bitterest set back during his eight years in power.