Uncertainty over polls as crackdown continues

Islamabad: Pakistan's government is committed to holding national elections but was undecided when,
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said on Sunday, a day after emergency powers were invoked .

"We are committed to making sure that elections are held and that democratic process flourishes in Pakistan," Aziz told a news conference. "As a result of what has happened there could be some timing differences but no decision has been made."

The state of emergency declared in Pakistan will be imposed for "as long as it is necessary," he said.

Aziz said no decision had yet been made as to whether parliamentary elections scheduled for January would go ahead as planned, but earlier Information Minister Tariq Azim Khan on Dubai-based GEO TV said parliamentary elections would be delayed indefinitely.

According to CNN, earlier Sunday Pakistani authorities began to round up 1,500 opponents from the military, judiciary and opposition parties, according to media and police sources, one day after Musharraf suspended the country's constitution and dismissed the chief justice.

Former head of the ISI held

General Hameed Gull, the former head of the ISI, the Pakistani intelligence service, was among those arrested on Sunday, police officials told CNN. The TV station reported that Gull was apprehended as he attempted to meet some of the seven Supreme Court judges placed under house arrest on Saturday after refusing to endorse the president's decision to suspend the constitution.

Other moves by Musharraf under the emergency powers included rules forbidding newspapers and broadcasters from expressing "any opinion that is prejudicial to the ideology of Pakistan or integrity of Pakistan."