US envoy pressures Musharraf to end crackdown
Pressure mounted on Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf tonight as a senior US envoy arrived to personally urge him to end the country's political crisis.
Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte will tell him to lift the state of emergency and end a wave of repression.
In an apparent move to blunt criticism from the US which is Gen. Musharraf's key foreign backer, opposition leaders including Benazir Bhutto were released and two independent news channels allowed back on air.
But the general also pressed on with disputed plans for January parliamentary elections, swearing in a caretaker government charged with preparing Pakistan for the vote and defending his record during the eight years since he seized power in a coup.
"I take pride in the fact that, being a man in uniform, I have actually introduced the essence of democracy in Pakistan, whether anyone believes it or not," Gen. Musharraf said.
Hours later Mr Negroponte landed in the capital Islamabad.
He was expected to meet Gen. Musharraf, and leaders of Pakistan's opposition but details of his schedule were not disclosed and it was unclear if he would meet Ms Bhutto, head of the Pakistan People's Party.
"Our message is that we want to work with the government and people of Pakistan and the political actors in Pakistan to put the political process back on track as soon as possible," Mr Negroponte said.
The crisis has estranged Gen. Musharraf from Ms Bhutto, a secular, pro-Western leader who had been widely expected to join forces with him if she did well in the elections.
She was one of thousands of opposition activists detained since Gen. Musharraf declared the emergency on November 3.
She was freed on Friday morning from house arrest imposed three days earlier to stop her from leading anti-Musharraf protests.
Ms Bhutto immediately repeated her call for Gen. Musharraf to quit, and said his sidelining of moderate opponents had allowed the rise of Islamic extremism.
She is calling for opposition parties to unite and maybe boycott the elections.
"Do we want to deny this nation its true legitimate leadership and make way ... for extremist forces? The West's interests lie in a democratic Pakistan," she said.
Gen Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup, insists he is still moving toward a restoration of democracy and civilian rule that Western governments believe could help stabilise the nuclear-armed country.
Today he swore in an interim government headed by loyalist former Senate chairman Mohammedmian Soomro. Parliament was dissolved yesterdays after completing its five-year term. The caretakers will manage the country until elections due by January 9.
But opposition parties as well as the US and Britain say the ballot cannot be fair unless the restrictions are ended.
Demonstrations continued today in defiance of a ban on political gatherings.
In the north-western city of Peshawar, police used tear gas and batons to break up a rally by 500 supporters of a coalition of religious parties and detained more of their leaders.
The same groups staged smaller rallies in Islamabad and the southern city of Karachi.
About 3,000 students rallied at a university campus in Lahore, chanting slogans against Gen. Musharraf and in favour of Imran Khan, the cricketer-turned-politician detained on Tuesday.
Analysts say Musharraf's ability to ride out the crisis depends on whether he can keep the powerful army and the United States on his side. He also needs to keep Pakistan's feuding opposition parties divided.
Exiled former leader Nawaz Sharif has welcomed Bhutto's calls for an opposition alliance to restore democracy and said he is willing to put their intense rivalry behind him.
