Islamabad: Pakistan's government has freed thousands of critics jailed under emergency rule, and President General Pervez Musharraf may step down as army chief this weekend, officials said Wednesday.
The moves could restore Musharraf's bruised credentials as a democrat and a reliable ally for the West against international terrorism. They could also blunt opposition threats to boycott critical elections.
However, it remains unclear when he will lift a state of emergency that has cast Pakistan into crisis just as it confronts rising Islamic militancy.
Attorney General Malik Mohammed Qayyum told The Associated Press that Musharraf would quickly quit his army post and be sworn in for a new five-year presidential term as a civilian. ''It may happen on Saturday ... I know the president, and he will honor his commitment,'' he said.
Meeting another central demand of domestic critics, the United States and the European Union, authorities said they had freed most of the thousands of people rounded up since he seized emergency powers on Nov. 3.
Law Minister Afzal Hayder announced on state television that the government had freed 5,634 lawyers and political activists. He said 623 people remained in government custody and that they too would be released soon.
Those freed included former cricketer Imran Khan, chief of the Tehreek-e-Insaaf party.
Khan said he would go on with a hunger strike begun in custody and would boycott the election to force Musharraf to quit power altogether.
''Musharraf is staging a drama to deceive America and the West -- whom he scared that without him, the nuclear bomb will get into extremist hands,'' he told reporters.
Also freed was Javed Hashmi, acting president of the party of Nawaz Sharif, Musharraf's most dogged rival. Opposition parties should boycott the January 8 parliamentary election to avoid giving credibility to Musharraf's violation of the constitution, he told an AP reporter by phone.
Khan has a high profile but limited political clout, and Musharraf's more pressing need is to prevent former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto teaming up with Sharif.
Bhutto's party welcomed the releases but said thousands more of its supporters remained in custody and that Musharraf could not be trusted.
''President Musharraf has made such promises before the nation and the international community in the past as well, and we will comment when he actually steps down as the army chief,'' party spokesman Farhatullah Babar said.
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