Pakistan rejects calls to end emergency

By MATTHEW ROSENBERG, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 26 minutes ago
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan on Sunday rejected a blunt call from Washington's No. 2 diplomat for President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to lift emergency rule and free political opponents ahead of elections.
This is nothing new," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Sadiq told The Associated Press. "The U.S. has been saying this for many days. He has said that same thing. He has reiterated it." Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte delivered the message that Musharraf must end emergency rule as soon as possible during a two-hour meeting Saturday with Musharraf and Pakistan's deputy army commander, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani. The envoy's visit was seen as a last best chance to ease the latest political turmoil in Pakistan.
Sadiq said the government was taking steps to hold free and fair elections, and any decision on lifting the emergency would "be taken according to the ground situation."
Speaking during a news conference at the U.S. embassy earlier Sunday, Negroponte said he "urged the government to stop such actions, lift the state of emergency and release all political detainees" and that "Emergency rule is not compatible with free, fair and credible elections."
It's a view shared by opposition leaders, who insist that any vote held while thousands of opponents are in jail cannot be considered credible. They say most of those targeted in the emergency are pro-Western moderates, not the Islamic extremists Musharraf said he needed to combat.
The state of emergency came into effect Nov. 3, and since then, thousands of opponents have been jailed, Supreme Court judges purged and independent TV stations muffled.
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