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Pakistan to Hold Election by Mid-February
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[November 08, 2007]
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistan's parliamentary elections will
be held by mid-February, a month later than planned, the country's military ruler said Thursday, a day after President Bush urged him to hold the vote on time.
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 Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto denounced President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's pledge as insufficient and said he should step down as army chief within a week.
With anger over military rule spreading, the United States and domestic opponents are stepping up pressure on Musharraf to end the emergency rule imposed Saturday, shed his uniform and hold elections as planned in January.
Bush, who counts Musharraf as a key ally in the war on terror, telephoned him Wednesday to say he should step down as the military chief and hold the vote on schedule.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE.
AP's earlier story is below.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistan's elections -- originally scheduled for January
-- will he held by mid-February, state media quoted President Gen. Pervez Musharraf as saying Thursday.
The announcement came a day after President Bush called Musharraf and urged the military leader to hold parliamentary elections and shed his army uniform.
Musharraf declared a state of emergency over the weekend, and the government had warned this week that elections could be delayed by up to a year.
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 Musharraf announced that the elections would be delayed by not more than one month after a meeting of his National Security Council, state-run Pakistan television said Thursday.
Musharraf, who has been promising to restore democracy since seizing power in a 1999 coup, has ousted independent-minded judges, put a stranglehold on the media and granted sweeping powers to authorities to crush dissent since declaring emergency rule Saturday.
The general says he suspended the constitution because the courts were hampering his efforts against extremist groups, such as by ordering the release of suspects held without charge. Political opponents, however, contend the crackdown is really meant to protect Musharraf's hold on power.
[Associated
Press; By SADAQAT JAN]
Copyright 2007 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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