Musharraf signals prolonged emergency

Dubai: Pakistan's President told a top US diplomat yesterday that he would only call off emergency rule when the security situation improves.

General Pervez Musharraf met John Negroponte, number two in the US State Department, for two hours of talks in Islamabad which diplomats said the US official would use to send "a very strong message" to end the two-week-old state of emergency.

It came a day after the visiting envoy spoke by telephone with opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, who has scrapped power-sharing talks with Musharraf and urged him to quit.

"President Musharraf made it clear to the visiting US envoy that the emergency can only be lifted once the situation regarding law and order improves," a presidential aide told AFP. "He told the envoy that the emergency is meant to reinforce and strengthen the law enforcement apparatus in the fight against militancy and extremism," the aide added.

In an interview with BBC's Radio 4 Today programme, Musharraf defended his decision to impose the emergency and admitted that he had acted extra-constitutionally on November 3.

Demanding an explanation for his media portrayal in recent months, Musharraf told the channel: "Did I go mad? Or suddenly, my personality changed? Am I Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde? ... Have I done anything constitutionally illegal? Yes, I did it on November 3. But did I do it before? Not once."

Poll date announcement

Despite the defence, Musharraf also came under pressure from his allies to end the emergency. Mushahid Hussain, secretary general of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q, told Dawn television it would be "appropriate and internationally welcomed" for the emergency to end before elections. Pakistan's election commission said it would announce a date for elections on Wednesday.

Earlier, Dubai Media City stopped the satellite transmission of Geo News and ARY One World, two Dubai-based, privately-owned Pakistani news channels. Ebrahim Al Abid, Director General of the National Media Council, said the decision was in line with the UAE's foreign policy, "based on neutrality and non-interference in others' domestic affairs".