Day after Bush calls, General says Feb polls

Pakistan’s parliamentary elections will be held by mid-February, a month later than planned, President Pervez Musharraf...

Pakistan’s parliamentary elections will be held by mid-February, a month later than planned, President Pervez Musharraf said on Thursday, a day after US President George W Bush urged him to hold the vote on time.

The US applauded the announcement, but Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto promptly denounced it as insufficient and said Musharraf should step down as army chief within a week.

On Wednesday, Bush telephoned Musharraf to say he should step down as the military chief and hold the vote on schedule. “My message was very plain, very easy to understand, and that is, the United States wants you to have the elections as scheduled and take your uniform off,” said Bush.

Story continues below this ad

Following today’s announcement, the White House said: “We think it is a good thing that President Musharraf has clarified the election date for the Pakistani people.”

News that elections would be held by mid-February was flashed on state-run TV. Later, it showed Musharraf insisting that he had always intended to carry out promised democratic reform and that the delay was because of the difficulty in scheduling both national and provincial ballots.