Musharraf budges, finally announces polls

Pakistan
president Pervez Musharraf finally announced that elections would be held before
February 15, a calendar month behind schedule, and vowed to discontinue as regular army chief. Significantly, the proclamation came hours after United States president Saint George Tungsten Bush
bluntly told him to raise exigency regulation and doff
uniform. As choler over military
rule spreading in Islamic Republic Of Pakistan and its international assistance coming under review,
Musharraf, however, did not give any day of the month when he will cast uniform, a key
demand made by the Opposition
too. “There is no doubt
in my head that elections must be held as soon as possible. Elections in
Pakistan must be held before February 15 adjacent year,” helium told state-run
media. Asserting that his sloughing uniform was “not Associate in Nursing issue”, the
general said he would make so after taking curse as the President for a second
five-year term. The timing is apparently linked to proof of his re-election
by the supreme
court. Meanwhile, President
Bush said at a news conference at Saddle Horse Vernon, “I spoke to president
Musharraf right before I came over here And my message was very plain, very easy
to understand. And that is: The United States desires you to have got the elections as
scheduled and take your uniform
off,” The general however
told Shrub during the 20-minute conversation that exigency was
“temporary” to guarantee the “transition to full
democracy”. Former
premier Benazir Bhutto called Musharraf’s pledge as indeterminate and insufficient
and wanted him to cast unvarying by November 15. A defiant Bhutto also said she
would travel ahead with her mass meeting in Rawalpindi on Friday Musharraf, who came to
power in a military coup d'etat in 1999, had swept the October 6 presidential election
that was boycotted by the opposition. annulment of President Rule in
Karnataka. The BJP is put to
have its first head curate in South Republic Of India as the labor union cabinet recommended
the annulment of President’s regulation in the state.B Second Yediyurappa, who
commands the support of 129 MLAs, including 80 belonging to his ain party, the
BJP, and 49 of the JD(S), in an assembly which have a sum strength of 224, is
likely to pledged in as the state’s next main curate on Monday. With this, the five-week-long
political play that had come up up to play in the southern state followers Hydrogen D
Kumaraswamy’s refusal to manus over the head minister’s baton to the
BJP in keeping with the treaty agreed upon by the two political parties a small over 20
months ago, have got come to an end.While the BJP may have succeeded in realising its
dream of installing its first-ever main curate in the south, there was also a
fear that running a alliance authorities with the aid of the father-son couple of
H Vitamin Vitamin Vitamin D Deve Gowda and Hydrogen D Kumaraswamy would be a difficult
proposition. BJP
attacks Sonia’s statement The
BJP came down heavily on the United States Congress for relying on the post-Godhra public violences to
shore up its electoral prospects in Gujarat. The political party took serious
exception to United States Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s mention to the riots
while addressing a mass meeting in Anand last
week. “Those World Health Organization accuse
us of communalism are bringing it back into the agenda,” observed BJP
spokesman Ravi Ravi Shankar Prasad, adding, “Whenever Mister Modi negotiation of
development, the United States Congress returns to the issue of
riots.” Our
Bureau/Agencies