Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) — Pakistan will hold national elections on Jan. 8, as opposition parties said they may boycott the ballot which the U.S. says won’t be fair under emergency rule.

Voting for national and provincial assemblies will be held on the same day, Chief Election Commissioner Qazi Muhammed Farooq said in an announcement on state-run Pakistan Television today.

“Any election under the emergency rule inherently lacks credibility,” Ishtiaq Ahmed, associate professor of international relations at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad said in a phone interview. “Emergency should be abolished before the election to keep the process clear and fair.”

The opposition boycotted talks yesterday to discuss a code of conduct during campaigning and party leaders have said they may refuse to take part in the ballot unless General Pervez Musharraf steps down as president. The U.S. has pressed Musharraf to hold free and fair elections and lift emergency rule.

“The announcement of a date for elections means nothing because there can’t be fair elections under Musharraf,” Farhatullah Babar, spokesman for former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, said in a phone interview. “Before elections can be held, there needs to be restoration of the constitution, reinstatement of judges and Musharraf’s resignation as president.”

U.S. Pressure

Musharraf rebuffed pressure from Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte to restore the constitution and free political prisoners, saying emergency rule is necessary to stop the nuclear-armed nation descending into chaos.

Pakistan will begin campaigning under a state of emergency imposed by Musharraf on Nov. 3 as the Supreme Court was hearing challenges to his re-election. A panel of Supreme Court judges, appointed by Musharraf, yesterday rejected all but one petition objecting to him standing while holding the post of army chief.

Bhutto said the government plans to rig the parliamentary ballot to help pro-Musharraf candidates win, the Nation newspaper reported today.

The panel handed Musharraf a victory that may allow him to ease emergency rule restrictions that have led to the arrest of opposition leaders, lawyers and more than 15,000 supporters, the Associated Press cited Ahsan Iqbal, a spokesman for former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, as saying yesterday.

“The whole country was subject to martial law to get this decision” from the judges, Iqbal said. “Now he has got his decision at gunpoint,” he may make concessions.

Journalists Arrested

Police arrested at least 150 journalists outside the Karachi Press Club today after beating protestors with batons, Imtiaz Ahmed Khan, general secretary of the club said in a phone interview. As many as 300 journalists gathered outside the club and shouted anti-government slogans in protest of media curbs imposed after emergency rule.

The government freed 3,614 political prisoners jailed since emergency rule was imposed, and plans to release 2,000 others soon, Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema told reporters in Islamabad today.

Deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudhry and other judges are free to “go to their native cities or remain where they are,” he said. Aitzaz Ahsan, who represented Chaudhry in the Supreme Court and other lawyers will not be released for now, he said.

Interim Prime Minister Mohammedmian Soomro will probably announce the release of all detainees tomorrow, the Daily Times newspaper reported, without saying where it obtained the information.

Protest Plans

The All Parties Democratic Movement, a group of opposition parties including Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Islamic alliance of Mutahidda Majlis-e-Amal, said countrywide rallies will be held on Nov. 23 to protest emergency rule, Shahid Shamsi, a spokesman, said by phone today.

Musharraf, 64, said he is “determined to take the oath as a civilian” once the Supreme Court completes its rulings on his Oct. 6 re-election, the official Associated Press of Pakistan cited him as saying in a television interview broadcast late yesterday. “I will do so immediately after the judgment.”

Musharraf wasn’t declared the winner because the Supreme Court had barred the Election Commission from making an announcement until a final ruling. His five-year term ended on Nov. 15. Chaudhry was among the judges dismissed when emergency rule was declared.

Saudi Visit

Musharraf left for Saudi Arabia today on a two-day visit. He isn’t scheduled to meet with Sharif, who lives there in exile, Information Secretary Anwar Mahmood said in a phone interview from Islamabad today. The president is scheduled to meet with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah and perform a Muslim holy pilgrimage, Mahmood said.

Sharif, 57, was exiled to the Saudi kingdom in 2000 by Musharraf.

“Pakistan will welcome overseas observers to monitor the elections,” Chief Election Commissioner Farooq said. “The elections will be held in a free, fair and transparent manner.”

Musharraf last imposed emergency rule when he seized power in a 1999 coup, lifting it three years later to allow elections.

European Union observers “cast serious doubt” over the independence of the election commission at the time and said parties didn’t have sufficient time to campaign because a ban on rallies wasn’t lifted until 40 days before the vote.

Source: bloomberg.com

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