Aides to President Pervez Musharraf said today that a date for lifting his nearly 4-week-old emergency decree could be announced as early as Thursday, the same day he takes office as civilian president. Musharraf's inauguration to a new five-year presidential term is a purposeful display of what he and his allies say has been a long-intended transition to civilian rule. Opponents, though, consider Musharraf's new term to be tainted by the fact that he was military ruler when the vote was held, and by the fact that the balloting was endorsed by a new Supreme Court seeded with loyalists.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.