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 The Supreme Court is expected to clear the last legal obstacles to Musharraf's continued rule on Thursday. The Election Commission can then confirm his victory in November's presidential election.
Attorney General Malik Mohammed Qayyum said Musharraf would quickly quit his army post and be sworn in for a new five-year term.
"It may happen on Saturday," Qayyum said.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE.
AP's earlier story is below.
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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Opposition parties wavered Wednesday on whether to boycott crucial Pakistani elections, backing off their most strident calls to shun the vote unless President Gen. Pervez Musharraf ends his state of emergency.
The government continued to roll back a wave of repression, freeing several hundred more opponents across the country, as the president returned from a trip to Saudi Arabia to discuss the future of an exiled rival, Nawaz Sharif.
Meanwhile, there were fresh arrests Wednesday. Wajihuddin Ahmed, a former Supreme Court judge who was the only candidate against Musharraf in the October presidential election, was taken into custody in Islamabad along with Athar Minallah, an opposition lawyer.
"They were driving a car when men in plainclothes stopped them," said Minallah's wife, Ghazala. "We do not know where they have been taken."
Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto deferred a decision on whether to spurn the election, which she has said cannot be legitimate if the emergency continues.
Since seizing extraordinary powers on Nov. 3, Musharraf has removed independent-minded judges from the Supreme Court, muzzled the media by taking several private news channels off the air and thrown thousands in jail.
But he also has vowed to step down as military chief -- possibly in the next few days
-- and remain on as a civilian president, a crucial step that became easier after a newly constituted Supreme Court stacked with Musharraf loyalists on Monday dismissed legal challenges to his re-election as head of state.
The court met again on Wednesday to consider whether emergency rule was legal, but adjourned without making a decision.
Bhutto said late Tuesday that it would be a "good sign" if Musharraf quits his army post, and avoided criticizing him directly. She said her party needed a few more days to decide whether to boycott the Jan. 8 parliamentary elections.
Musharraf flew back early Wednesday after meeting with Saudi King Abdullah. Saudi officials said efforts had been made to arrange a meeting between Musharraf and Sharif, who was ousted as prime minister by the general's 1999 coup.
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 A Pakistani official said Musharraf's goal was to prevent Sharif from returning before the parliamentary elections. Sharif's party suggested he had snubbed the general.
"He followed his commitment in letter and spirit of not holding negotiations with a military dictator," said party chairman Raja Zafarul Haq.
Haq declined to say whether his party would boycott the vote, saying the opposition ought to make a collective decision.
"If there is a decision to participate in the elections, all parties should participate. Otherwise all parties should boycott," he said.
Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said Wednesday that more than 3,700 people had been released from lockup, several hundred more than he reported the day before. Cheema had put the figure of those still in detention at 2,000 on Tuesday.
Many high-ranking party activists and leaders, such as cricket star turned politician Imran Khan and Aitzaz Ahsan, president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, remained in prison.
The mass release follows a visit by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, who issued a blunt call for Musharraf to end the crackdown.
President Bush said Tuesday that it will be hard for him to argue that Musharraf is still trying to advance democracy if he does not lift emergency rule before the elections.
"Are we happy with the emergency rule? No, we're not. Do I understand how important he is in fighting extremists and radicals? I do. And do I believe that he's going to end up getting Pakistan back on the road to democracy? I certainly hope so," Bush said in an interview with ABC television.
Musharraf has said he suspended the constitution to ward off political chaos and give authorities a freer hand against Islamist militants, who have pushed out of their traditional strongholds in the tribal regions near Afghanistan into areas once considered safe.
On Wednesday, troops continued to battle pro-Taliban militants in Swat, a former tourist region just 100 miles from the capital, Islamabad. The army said 40 fighters had been killed in raids Tuesday and Wednesday on a mountaintop position. Some 180 militants have been killed in the region in the past week, authorities said.
[Associated
Press; By PAUL HAVEN]
Associated Press writers Sadaqat Jan and Munir Ahmad in Islamabad, Abdullah Shihri in Riyadh and Salah Nasrawi in Cairo, Egypt, contributed to this report.
Copyright 2007 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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