Islamabad: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz yesterday spoke of "free and fair" general elections in the first half of January 2008.
Speaking to reporters, Aziz said caretaker governments would be in place at the centre and in the four provinces during the parliamentary polls, which will be only the second since President Pervez Musharraf took power in a coup on October 12, 1999.
The last general elections were held in October 2002.
Members of the caretaker dispensations would not take part in the elections, he said. The current assemblies would complete their terms on November 15 and fresh elections would be held within 60 days in keeping with constitutional stipulations, he said.
"With the presidential election held successfully, the first phase of the election process has been completed and now general elections will be held in a transparent and free manner," he said.
Aziz did not indicate whether opposition parties would be consulted before the caretaker governments were installed.
Responding to a question, he said that adequate security would be provided for former prime minister and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairperson Benazir Bhutto when she arrived in Karachi on October 18.
A rapprochement between Musharraf and Benazir is widely seen as the most significant development on the country's political chessboard within Musharraf's stated agenda of a united front of liberal democratic forces.
MQM red carpet
Meanwhile, Musharraf's staunch ally and ruling coalition partner, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, which is politically dominant in the urban centres of southern Sindh province, has welcomed the PPP leader's forthcoming return.
A federal cabinet minister, Shaikh Rashid Ahmad told a private channel yesterday that a bond of trust had developed between Musharraf and Benazir and that the two no longer needed intermediaries.
