Pakistan president announces elections

Pakistan's President General Pervez Musharraf has promised to hold provincial and federal elections in October 2002.

The announcement, which comes on Pakistan's Independence Day, will be the final stop on what Gen Musharraf has called his "road map to democracy".

Gen Musharraf promised to give Pakistan a democratic rule that will last.

He seized power in a bloodless coup in October 1999 saying the democratic institutions had collapsed and the civilian Government of Nawaz Sharif had decimated the economy and threatened the survival of the country.

In Pakistan the army has ruled for 27 of the last 54 years.

Successive civilian Governments have been thrown out on charges of corruption and ineptitude.

"I salute the nation. I salute the people of Pakistan," Gen Musharraf said earlier in the day at a flag raising ceremony to mark Pakistan's independence from India in 1947.

"We have to advocate tolerance, understanding of each other's views and beliefs. The character and performance of a nation is the sum total of the performance and character of every one of its citizens," he said.

Gen Musharraf pleaded for tolerance and urged an end to sectarian violence. Two wars with neighbouring India over the disputed territory of Kashmir have left scores dead.

"We have to unite to shun sectarian forces, shun despondency and have faith in God and also in ourselves that we will be able to achieve great successes," Gen Musharraf said.

A return to democratic rule in Pakistan has been a consistent demand of the international community.

It is expected that once a civilian Government is in power in Pakistan, the US administration will lift sanctions against this poor country.