Musharraf may quit as army chief within days

updated 9:49 a.m. ET Nov. 21, 2007

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan's government freed thousands of critics jailed under emergency rule, and President Gen. Pervez Musharraf may step down as army chief this weekend, officials said Wednesday, moves which could help head off an opposition boycott of critical elections.

Attorney General Malik Mohammed Qayyum told The Associated Press that Musharraf would quickly quit his army post and be sworn in for a new five-year term. "It may happen on Saturday ... I know the president, and he will honor his commitment," he said.

Meeting another central demand of domestic critics, the United States and the European Union, authorities said they had freed most of the thousands of people rounded up since emergency rule was proclaimed on Nov. 3.

Law Minister Afzal Hayder announced on state television that the government had freed 5,634 lawyers and political activists. He said 623 people remained in government custody and that they too would be released soon.

Those freed included Imran Khan, a former cricketer turned firebrand opposition leader.

A government official said Javed Hashmi, acting president of the party of Nawaz Sharif, Musharraf's most dogged rival, would also be freed. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to reporters.

Khan has a high profile but limited political clout, and Musharraf's more pressing need is to prevent former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto teaming up with Sharif and boycotting the vote.

Bhutto's party cautious
Bhutto's party welcomed the releases but said thousands more of its supporters remained in custody and that Musharraf could not be trusted to keep his word.

"President Musharraf has made such promises before the nation and the international community in the past as well, and we will comment when he actually steps down as the army chief," party spokesman Farhatullah Babar said.

Washington has been hoping for a rapprochement between Musharraf and Bhutto. Her secular party would lend a key U.S. counter-terrorist ally badly needed democratic legitimacy.

Both Bhutto and Musharraf are calling for moderate political forces to reconcile and revitalize Pakistan's effort against rising Islamic extremism — an agenda that U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte urged them to return to on a visit last week.

Bhutto continues to talk about allying with Sharif, a fellow former prime minister, to drive Musharraf from power if the emergency is not swiftly lifted.

But Sharif said that he had failed to convince her in a telephone conversation on Wednesday to join him in the drastic step of boycotting the election.

"It's a question of do we have to now be part of this illegal process that Gen. Musharraf has started?" Sharif said in an interview from exile in Saudi Arabia. "Benazir Bhutto has to first make up her mind ... I could not persuade her for the time being."

Musharraf, who has vowed to keep Sharif outside the political mainstream until after the ballot, held talks with Saudi leaders in Riyadh on Tuesday.

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