Pakistan to lift emergency in a month
Updated: 2007-11-10 17:08
ISLAMABAD - Emergency in Pakistan will be lifted in a month as the government does not want to make it a permanent feature, Attorney General Malik Qayyum said Saturday.
 Pakistani lawyers shouting anti-Musharraf slogans during a demonstration in Islamabad. Musharraf has said that elections will be held by February and that he will take off uniform before taking oath as president for the next term. [Xinhua] |
"It is the government policy to continue the state of emergency till it is needed but the situation is improving and it will be lifted in a month," the government's top lawyer told a private TV channel.
"The state of emergency will be lifted by the mid or end of next month if the situation is improved," he said.
Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf imposed the state of emergency one week ago, suspended the constitution and removed the chief justice.
Musharraf has said that elections will be held by February and that he will take off uniform before taking oath as president for the next term.
Musharraf was unofficially declared winner in the residential elections in October but the Supreme Court has barred the Election Commission from issuing official results of the presidential elections.
Musharraf has accused top judges of the Supreme Court of interfering in affairs of state organs and paralyzing the life.
But ousted Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry has rejected Musharraf's assertions and said that Musharraf has apprehension that the Supreme Court will announce a verdict against him.
The Supreme Court was hearing petitions if General Musharraf is competent to contest the presidential elections in uniform. The court was due to announce its verdict in a few days but the emergency was declared and many judges of the Supreme Court sacked.
A new chief justice was appointed who has shown allegiance to Musharraf while taking oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order.
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