Cabinet meeting ends with talk of poll delay

Islamabad: The Cabinet yesterday discussed the prospect of delaying parliamentary elections by up to three months in view of the state of emergency declared by President General Pervez Musharraf, a minister said.

"The issue of holding elections was discussed at length and after attending the Cabinet meeting I feel that the elections may be delayed by two months," the minister said on condition of anonymity.

"The elections will not be delayed for longer than three months," he said, adding: "There is no final decision."

A government spokesman could not be reached for comment about the meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.

Bhutto's challenge

Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, meanwhile, said that the government had already decided to delay the elections by at least a year.

"They have postponed the election for one or two years but they have not announced it as such. I know this from the inside," she said while shying away from providing details about her information.

Bhutto even threw a challenge at Musharraf - to prove her wrong by going on television to tell the country that the elections would go ahead as planned.

Western allies of Pakistan, including the United States, have urged him to hold the elections by mid-January as originally planned.

The US-allied military leader has promised to restore democracy, but has yet to commit to a schedule for giving up his position as army chief and holding the vote.

There does not appear to be a unified position on such a schedule among senior government officials either, with some members of the government pressing for the polls to be delayed by a year.

The Attorney General had suggested on Monday that parliament be dissolved by November 15 and that the polls be held on schedule two months later, but Aziz, speaking to journalists, dropped more than a hint of a likely delay.

"The next general elections will be held according to the schedule or a programme that will be finalised after consultations with all the stakeholders," he said on Monday.