Pakistan sets election date amid bin Laden threat
ISLAMABAD (AFP) — Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf will seek re-election on October 6, officials said Thursday, as the embattled US ally faced a declaration of war from Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
Opposition parties immediately vowed to quit parliament over Musharraf's plans to win another five-year term in uniform. He announced earlier this week that he would step down as army chief, but only if he wins the poll.
Musharraf, who seized power in a coup in 1999 and whose popularity has nosedived, must also hope the Supreme Court does not uphold any of the legal challenges that political rivals have filed against his eligibility.
Pakistan meanwhile dismissed Bin Laden's reported threat to wage war on Musharraf and his army, but it highlighted the continuing danger posed by Islamist fighters who have killed hundreds of people in recent attacks.
The election commission said that nominations for the presidential elections must be filed by September 27. "October 6 will be the election," the commission's secretary Kanwar Dilshad told AFP.
The vote is not by Pakistan's 160 million people but by a ballot of the country's national parliament and its four provincial assemblies, which are due to be dissolved shortly ahead of general elections due by early 2008.
"God willing we will re-elect him, we have got the majority, we have got the strength," Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani said. "It's a step towards democracy."
But the opposition wants Musharraf to seek re-election by a new parliament instead of the outgoing one and also for him to quit his military role before a vote.
The former commando says he plans to be sworn in as a civilian before his current term as president ends on November 15.
Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan said MPs from an alliance of key opposition parties called the All Pakistan Democratic Movement would resign from the assemblies "the day Musharraf's nomination papers are accepted."
Musharraf's plans to be re-elected in uniform have also apparently derailed negotiations for a power-sharing deal with self-exiled former premier Benazir Bhutto, who has vowed to return to Pakistan on October 18.
In an opinion piece in the Washington Post, Bhutto criticised the election commission for changing rules barring public servants -- such as army chief Musharraf -- from standing in polls unless they have been retired from their jobs for two years.
US-based organisation Human Rights Watch branded Musharraf's election plan as a "sham" and said the country's voters should be able to choose their president.
But visiting Commonwealth chief Don McKinnon said Thursday that the announcement of an election date showed democratic progress in Pakistan. The Commonwealth expelled Islamabad for five years after Musharraf's coup.
In a related development, the Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed an appeal against the retirement rule change which was filed by Khan this week.
But it is still hearing a series of opposition appeals against Musharraf's dual military-civilian role, his eligibility to stand in the election, and whether that vote should be conducted by the outgoing parliament.
The court is expected to rule on Friday or early next week.
Musharraf has been embroiled in crisis since March when he tried to sack the country's independent-minded chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who was later reinstated after leading a mass protest campaign.
But Musharraf has also faced a wave of Islamist violence since a deadly government raid on the Al-Qaeda-linked Red Mosque in Islamabad in July, a move that has apparently sparked bin Laden's latest verbal assault.
"Al-Qaeda will declare war on the tyrant Pervez Musharraf and his apostate army through the voice of the lion, Sheikh Osama bin Laden, God protect him," an Islamist website quoted the new bin Laden tape as saying on Thursday.
Musharraf abandoned Pakistan's support for the Taliban after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and joined Washington's "war on terror". He has since escaped at least two Al-Qaeda-linked assassination attempts.
Pakistani military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad dismissed the Bin Laden warning, saying: "We are already committed to fighting extremists and terrorists -- there is no change in our policy."
"If someone is hurling threats at us, that is their view. The whole nation is behind us and the Pakistan army is a national institution," Arshad told AFP.
