Musharraf allies gear up for polls

Islamabad: Allies of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf are gearing up for an election due on Jan. 8 while his opponents are still undecided whether to boycott polls they say will be anything but free and fair under emergency rule.

A Supreme Court stacked with friendly judges on Thursday dismissed the last challenge against his re-election as president, clearing the way for him to quit as army chief, but
he remains under international pressure to lift the emergency rule in order to give the polls some credibility.

"Elections are going to be a farce," Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister Musharraf ousted in 1999, told Reuters earlier this week from exile in Saudi Arabia's Red Sea port of Jeddah.

The Election Commission announced a poll schedule this week, requiring the candidates to file their nominations by Nov. 26 -- and the chances of Sharif being allowed back in time to post his candidacy are remote.

While their former leader languished in exile, turncoats in the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML), the party co-opted by General Musharraf to form a political support base eight years ago, met on Wednesday in Islamabad to choose candidates.

"We will finalise our list of candidates latest by Saturday," Mushahid Hussain Sayed, secretary-general of the ruling PML told Reuters, adding that the party would like to
see the emergency rolled back to prove it can win unassisted.

Authorities have freed thousands of opposition activists and lawyers in a first move to relax the emergency ahead of the poll.

But leading lawyers and judges who dared challenge Musharraf's authority are still in prison or under house arrest, and parties are strait-jacketed by bans on large rallies.