Nov 8, 2007 6:22 am US/Eastern
Report: Pakistan To Hold Elections By Mid-February
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CBS) ―
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Activists of Pakistan's fundamentalist party Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) shout anti-Musharraf slogans outside the country's Supreme Court on Sept. 17, 2007.
Aamir Qureshi/AFP/Getty Images
Pakistan's elections will he held by mid-February, state media quoted President Gen. Pervez Musharraf as saying on Thursday, indicating that the country's state of emergency will be short-lived.
Musharraf is under growing pressure from the United States and his domestic opponents to end the emergency declared Saturday and hold elections in January, as originally planned.
State-run Pakistan television flashed the news that Musharraf had announced that the elections would be delayed by not more than one month after a meeting of his National Security Council.
Earlier, state media quoted Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, president of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q party, who said the vote would be delayed at most until February.
"The polls will not be shifted to any date beyond that time and there should be no doubt about it," Hussain said, according to the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan news agency.
Musharraf suspended the constitution after declaring the state of emergency. He has since ousted independent-minded judges, put a stranglehold on the media and granted sweeping powers to authorities to crush dissent.
With the encouragement of the United States, Musharraf had held negotiations with Bhutto widely expected to lead to a power-sharing arrangement after parliamentary elections originally slated for Jan. 15.
Since the imposition of emergency rule, officials close to Musharraf have suggested the election could be delayed by up to a year.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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