End emergency rule, Negroponte tells Musharraf

“Emergency rule is not compatible with free, fair and credible elections.”

However, Mr Negroponte praised President Pervez Musharraf’s efforts in the war on terror and said he was heartened by the announcement of an election date for January 9.

General Musharraf has insisted – publicly and in his two-hour meeting with Mr Negroponte yesterday – that he would not lift the widely criticised emergency powers unless the security situation improved.

Thousands of opponents have been jailed, Supreme Court judges purged and independent TV stations muffled since the emergency was declared on November 3. Just before Mr Negroponte’s visit, General Musharraf freed opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and a leading human rights activist and loosened his restrictions on several independent television news outlets.

Mr Negroponte was measured in his comments, but expressed some impatience with General Musharraf, saying he hoped to see more moves towards democracy soon.

“There remain some other issues that are yet to be considered, or yet to be undertaken,” he said.

Mr Negroponte’s trip was seen as a last best chance to avoid political turmoil in Pakistan, a key front in the war on terror.

Yesterday the US diplomat met General Musharraf and Pakistan’s deputy army commander, General Ashfaq Kayani for more than two hours. Kayani is widely expected to take over the powerful role of military chief in the coming weeks when General Musharraf sheds his uniform and starts his second term as president.

An official in the president’s office said General Musharraf told Mr Negroponte the emergency was needed to hold a successful vote.

Going into the meeting, senior Bush administration officials were clear on what they wanted: an end to the emergency, a date set for elections in January, the release of opposition leaders and that General Musharraf step down as army chief.

Ms Bhutto’s release from house arrest was one of a number of face-saving measures the government took before Mr Negroponte’s arrival.

But there were also some ominous signs, with the broadcasts of two major independent television news stations – Geo and ARY, both of which transmit from nearby Dubai – being cut. Both stations said Dubai took action in response to pressure from General Musharraf.

GEO broadcast a continuous video of a thunderstorm at sea, with its logo floating on the choppy waves. “The pressure was so intense from General Musharraf”, prompting the state-owned Dubai Media City to order the signal cut at midnight on Friday, said Shahid Massood, Geo Group executive director, from Dubai.

Ms Bhutto and General Musharraf had been negotiating a power-sharing arrangement, but talks apparently collapsed as the general moved against the opposition following his decision to suspend the constitution.

Ms Bhutto has in recent days made increasingly strident demands for General Musharraf to resign, and has proposed the opposition form a unity front to serve as a transition government ahead of elections due by January 9.

The general, who until recently had been considered a vital US ally and a bulwark in the war on terror, has steadfastly refused. Instead, he has expressed exasperation with the mounting Western pressure and has pressed ahead with disputed plans for January elections, swearing in an interim government on Friday, charged with preparing for the vote.

General Musharraf has also come under fire for his military’s recent losses in fighting with pro-Taliban militants in Swat, where violence has raged since July.