Islamabad: Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf on Sunday pledged to hold parliamentary elections by January 9 but declined to set a date for lifting the state of emergency.
He said the election commission would fix an exact date for the vote and that parliament would be dissolved on Thursday. The country would be run by a caretaker government.
He also reiterated his promise to quit as army chief and take the oath of office for a second term as a civilian as soon as the Supreme Court validates his October 6 victory.
Musharraf told a news conference that the emergency and suspension of the constitution was a "bitter pill to swallow and most difficult decision in my life."
"I can't give a date [for lifting emergency]. It is required to ensure peace in Pakistan and an environment conducive to holding elections," the general said.
"We should have elections before the 9th of January," Musharraf said. But he insisted: "I did not violate the constitution and the law of this land. I stand by it because I think it was in the national interest."
'Fair elections'
Musharraf indicated that the emergency rule would last until the legislative polls, saying it was needed "to ensure absolutely fair and transparent elections."
Musharraf said the ousted chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, and other judges who refused to endorse emergency rule had forfeited their jobs. Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, meanwhile, arrived in the eastern city of Lahore, where she plans the biggest protest yet against the emergency rule.
Her planned "long march" from Lahore to the capital Islamabad starts tomorrow.
- With additional inputs from agencies
