Pakistan elections in January after global pressure (2nd Roundup)

Nov 5, 2007, 18:01 GMT

A government handout photograph released on 05 November 2007 shows Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf (L) talking with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz during their meeting in Islamabad, Pakistan. Musharraf today promised foreign diplomats in Islamabad that planned elections would be held and defended his controversial decision to impose a state of emergency, state media said. EPA/PRESS INFORMATION DEPARTMENT

Islamabad - Pakistan announced on Monday that general elections will be held as scheduled on January 15 next, as the international community increased pressure on President General Pervez Musharraf to put an end to emergency rule.

'The national and provincial assemblies will be dissolved on 15th November,' Attorney-General Malik Abdul Qayuum said, adding the elections will be held within three months of that date.

'So far there is no change in the schedule,' Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz also told reporters in Islamabad.

Musharraf, who took over in a bloodless military coup in 1999, partially suspended the country's constitution Saturday, curtailing civil rights and replacing top members of the judiciary who he saw as a threat to his rule.

The international community has reacted with sharp criticism and expressed concern over the political turmoil in the nuclear-armed country.

In the strongest reaction yet, the Dutch Minister for Development and Cooperation Bert Koenders announced a temporary halt to all financial assistance for Pakistan, while the British Foreign Office in London said it was 'considering its position' on grants for development and other projects.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour expressed 'alarm' at the suspension of basic human rights.

Under the accepted rules of international law, fundamental rights such as the right to life, the ban on arbitrary detention, torture and cruelty, inhumane and degrading treatment cannot be suspended even in times of emergency, she said.

Meanwhile the European Union 'reiterates the importance it attaches to the government's holding of free and fair elections on schedule,' a spokeswoman for the EU's executive, the Commission, told journalists in Brussels.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana described events in Pakistan as 'very negative' and stressed 'the need to maintain the electoral process.'

On Sunday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said during her visit to Israel that her country would review its aid to Pakistan, taking into account the political situation and the need for funds for counter-terrorism measures.

The United States also postponed defence cooperation talks with Pakistan, scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday in Islamabad.

The criticism came as scores of people were injured and detained by the security agencies to break lawyers' protest rallies across the country.

'The police harshly beat us up with the batons and more than a dozen lawyers were wounded,' lawyer Mudassir Ali told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa from the high court building in the Punjab provincial capital Lahore, where more than 2,000 lawyers had gathered.

The clashes erupted when the lawyers chanted slogans such as 'go Musharraf go' and 'military dictatorship unacceptable,' and tried to hold a rally on Mall Road, the main avenue in the city centre. But police fired several rounds of tear gas, leaving dozens of lawyers briefly unconscious.

Around 1,000 of our colleagues have so far been arrested, said senior lawyer Sarfraz Ahmed Cheema.

The clashes also occurred in the southern port city of Karachi, where dozens of lawyers were arrested when they tried to enter the high court building.

The legal fraternity boycotted court proceedings across the country and similar rallies were planned to be held on Tuesday.

Earlier, law enforcement agencies detained more than 1,600 opposition workers, rights activists and lawyers throughout the country for criticizing Musharraf's emergency move.

But the judiciary remained defiant as the overwhelming majority of the Supreme Court and four high court judges did not take oath under a Provisional Constitutional Order that Musharraf promulgated in his capacity as army chief to replace the national constitution.

Fourteen judges in Islamabad were placed under house arrest on Monday as they had announced their intention to attend their offices in the Supreme Court building, which was sealed off by more than 2,000 security personnel.

All the linking roads around and neighbouring the president's office and parliament building were also cordoned off by security personnel who set up barbed wire barriers.

Meanwhile, the country's major stock index plunged in the afternoon amid prevailing political uncertainty.

Investors at the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) dumped shares, pulling the KSE-100 index down by more than 5 per cent, as rumours spread across the country that Musharraf had been placed under house arrest in a military rebellion against him.

The fall was the biggest one-day decline for 16 months, an indication of the deepening political crisis in Pakistan.