Interim government to start work in Pakistan (Roundup)

Nov 15, 2007, 15:54 GMT

Riot Police disperse supporters of Benazir Bhutto the former prime minister and chairperson of opposition Pakistan People Party (PPP) shouts slogans during a protest against Bhutto\'s detention and Emergency rule in Peshawar, Pakistan, 15 November 2007. EPA/ARSHAD ARBAB

Islamabad - Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf was due to install a caretaker government on Friday to oversee general elections while he still intended to step down as army chief by the end of the month, the country's attorney general said in Islamabad Thursday.

'The president has said he will give up his uniform before December 1,' Malik Mohammad Qayyum told reporters.

He also confirmed that parliament would be dissolved at 11.59 pm at the end of its five-year tenure, despite the continuing state of emergency in Pakistan. The interim cabinet will then be appointed on Friday morning, Qayyum said.

While Musharraf's own term as president should also automatically end, the official cited constitutional provisions that say the incumbent leader must remain at his post until a new presidency begins.

Amid continuing demonstrations over the emergency, Pakistan is caught in the throes of a legal dispute over Musharraf's October 6 re-election victory, which his opponents claim is invalid because a serving member of the armed forces cannot run for president.

The military ruler says he cannot start a new term as a civilian leader until his re-election is confirmed. He has rejected broad opposition calls for his resignation, saying, 'The day when there is no turmoil in Pakistan, I will step down.'

Musharraf, an army general who seized power in a military coup in 1999 and went on to become a key US counter-terrorism ally, called the emergency on November 3, ostensibly to counter rising militant violence.

But his opponents say the step enabled him to dissolve an independent-minded Supreme Court before it could overturn the election result.

Qayyum rejected claims that new judges were sworn in on condition of their compliancy.

'There is no question of fixing judges,' he said, adding that the new court line-up was expected to rule on Musharraf's eligibility and the election result within a week.

'Let's all hope and pray that he gets a verdict in his favour so the uniform issue is dead and buried,' he said.

Meanwhile, ahead of the scheduled arrival of US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte for talks in Islamabad Friday, US officials renewed calls for steps to normalise the situation.

'The government of Pakistan needs to move as rapidly as possible to restore the normal democratic order,' Principal Officer of the US Consulate in Lahore, Bryan Hunt, said after talks with liberal opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, who has been under house arrest since Monday

'We need to move as rapidly as possible to have free and fair elections held on time in Pakistan,' Hunt said, calling for restrictions to be lifted on the opposition and media and for the release of thousands of political detainees.

The main task of the interim government was to hold elections of parliamentary assemblies as pledged by the president, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sher Afgan told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Musharraf said at the weekend that the elections will take place before January 9 as scheduled. But did not give a date for the end of the emergency measures, which he said would ensure the smooth holding of the polls while strengthening the fight against terorism.

Afghan declined to name the caretaker prime minister. Local media reported that the chairman of the upper house of parliament and Musharraf loyalist, Mohammadmian Soomro, had been picked up for the job.

The opposition was unlikely to welcome the appointment as it has already said that fair and free elections are not possible under emergency.

'With fundamental rights suspended, thousands of opposition workers behind the bars, rallies and demonstrations banned and the senior judges sacked, who will believe that the fair elections can be held?' the spokesman of the Pakistan Muslim League-N opposition party, Ahsan Iqbal, told dpa.

Bhutto also indicated earlier this week that she would boycott the vote, saying it was 'no more than state-managed show to return the PML-Q (ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid) to power.'

Concerning a recent decree issued by Musharraf that empowers the army to try civilians, Attorney General Qayyum said it was not as black as portrayed by the media.

The changes had been planned weeks before the emergency and only referred to crimes committed with a direct relation to the armed forces, according to the official.

None of the activists arrested under emergency rule would be tried in military courts, Qayyum said, stressing that the offences covered by the amendments did not extend to defamation of the army.

There had been speculation that the act would be used to silence critical voices in Pakistan, notably detractors of the president in view of his dual status as armed forces chief.

But rights groups still condemned the measure.

'The military is Pakistan's principal human rights abuser and the use of torture by its intelligence agencies is widespread and well- documented,' the New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement issued Thursday.

'Granting it legal authority to detain, interrogate and try its opponents amounts to throwing them to the lions and providing license for repression and torture,' it added.