Pakistan's opposition criticize plans to hold parliamentary elections under emergency rule

Pakistan's opposition called on Gen. Pervez Musharraf to lift a state of emergency, saying Monday they might boycott upcoming parliamentary elections unless citizens' rights were fully restored and he stepped down as army chief.

Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, meanwhile, prepared to launch a cross-country caravan to protest military rule. Police ramped up security for her, saying they had received intelligence that a suicide bomber was planning to attack her in the eastern city of Lahore.

Bhutto was targeted in an Oct. 18 suicide attack on her homecoming from exile to the southern city of Karachi, killing 145 other people.

Musharraf said Sunday he would stick to a January schedule for the polls, but set no time limit on emergency rule, which has resulted in the arrests of thousands of his critics, a ban on rallies and the blacking out of independent TV networks.

The measures, he argued, were necessary to ensure "absolutely fair and transparent elections" and to step up the fight against Islamic militants threatening Pakistan.

Benazir Bhutto welcomed his Jan. 9 cutoff date for the vote but said Monday that free and fair elections were not "forseeable" under the emergency and with Musharraf still army chief.

"In the given circumstances, boycotting elections could be an option," she told reporters. "We will consult the other political parties."

Raja Zafarul Haq, chairman of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's party, demanded restoration of the constitution, which was suspended under the emergency, reinstatement of top judges purged by Musharraf and the release of detainees — as well as Sharif's return from exile.

"Under the current circumstances it is very difficult to expect there would be fair elections in the country," he told Associated Press Television News. "Within the next week there will be meetings and we will finally decide whether to go for elections or agitation."

In Lahore, about 200 police were guarding the house where Bhutto was staying, with snipers on surrounding rooftops, ahead of her 300-kilometer (185-mile) protest caravan to Islamabad, due to begin Tuesday. The access road was blocked by steel barricades.

With an escort of dozens of police vehicles, she ventured out to offer prayers at the grave of Pakistan's national poet, Allama Iqbal, and declared to reporters that her caravan was part of her campaign "to save Pakistan."

"I know it is dangerous but what alternative is there when the country is in danger? We welcome the announcement of the election schedule but we think it is too little. People want free and fair elections," she said.

Bhutto also demanded Musharraf step down as army chief when his current term as president expires Nov. 15 — a step he is promising to take once a reconstituted Supreme Court validates his recent victory in a controversial presidential election.

Thousands of Bhutto's supporters are expected to join her on the journey, likely to take about three days.

Ayaz Salim, a top police official, said police had stepped up security after receiving intelligence that a suicide bomber planning to kill Bhutto was staying in a Lahore hotel. He said police searched all the city's hotels but did not find the suspect.

Farzana Raja, a spokesman for Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party, or PPP, vowed its supporters would fight any attempt by authorities to block her "freedom march" — which would appear to violate the current ban on rallies.

"If police try to stop us, in every town and district of Punjab, there will be a battlefield between PPP activists and police," he said.

Speaking Sunday, Musharraf appeared defiant but bitter at rising criticism of his decision to suspend the constitution just over a week ago, a step he says was necessary to combat rising Islamic militancy that had sown " turmoil, shock and confusion" in Pakistan.

On Monday, the army said its helicopters strafed suspected militant positions in the northwestern district of Swat and had arrested a local man accused of involvement in beheadings of security forces. The suspect had also allegedly supplied weapons to supporters of a pro-Taliban cleric who have seized control of territory from the government. The army had no information on casualties in the fighting.

Musharraf's defense is unlikely to dispel the notion shared by many in Pakistan that the emergency — launched ahead of the Supreme Court ruling that could have nixed his plans to serve another five-year term — was motivated by his own determination to stay in power.

Adding to their concerns was an announcement by the attorney-general Sunday that military courts could now try civilians on charges ranging from treason to inciting public unrest. That could, in theory, include those who organize protests against Musharraf's military-led government.

The United States and other Western allies have urged Musharraf to hold crucial parliamentary polls on schedule, and said they were pleased at news they would not be delayed as earlier feared, but were still calling for the emergency would be lifted.