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India-Pakistan |
Musharraf aides say he'll announce end to emergency rule |
2007-11-29 |
![]() Two senior Pakistani officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said language on lifting the state of emergency had been incorporated into the text of a speech Musharraf is to deliver to the nation Thursday, hours after the inaugural ceremony. Dawn News, the country's main English-language news channel, said the state of emergency could end in the next 48 hours. The Pakistani leader, however, often instructs his senior lieutenants to circulate word of planned actions well before he intends to carry them out. Before Musharraf stepped down today as army chief of staff, fulfilling a long-standing pledge, target dates were repeatedly announced and then ignored. Even if an end to the emergency decree is announced, opponents doubt that Musharraf will reverse what has emerged as the centerpiece of the decree: his firing of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry and other high court justices and senior judges. The Pakistani leader has repeatedly ruled out their reinstatement. Some other provisions of the decree have already been eased. The government says all but a few dozen opposition activists rounded up in the wake of the declaration have been freed, though human rights groups say they cannot verify that claim. |
Posted by:Fred |