Musharraf puts future in voters' hands

Pakistan’s president, General Pervez Musharraf has promised to step aside if voters decide in a national referendum to deny him five more years as president.

In the eastern city of Lahore, four or five members of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party were taken into protective police custody during the night to keep them from disrupting the vote, said Police Chief Javed Noor.

‘‘We had information that 20 people belonging to the Pakistan People’s Party had plans to create unrest and disturb the polling process,’’ Mr Noor said. He said police were looking for others on the list of suspects.

Despite boycott calls from the main opposition and hard-line Islamic groups, Gen Musharraf is, however, not taking much of a risk with the referendum.

With the backing of leading business groups, scores of trade unions and some political parties backing him - and the powerful military an electoral victory is all but certain, analysts say.

But there appeared to be little tension in major cities such as Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Karachi as polls opened despite police guards and even some soldiers deployed at polling stations or in occasional trucks patrolling streets. Traffic was lighter than normal.

In Rawalpindi, a half dozen soldiers were deployed inside a school that had been converted to a polling station, but outside the atmosphere was festive with a food stand set up by the mayor to make sure no voters went hungry.

A bigger question is whether Gen Musharraf will get the large turnout he wants as a stamp of legitimacy.

Toward that end, the Electoral Commission has repeatedly relaxed voting rules and is setting up an unprecedented 87,000 polling stations - including in such never-before-seen places as petrol stations, hospitals and prisons.

‘‘Pakistan stands on an important turning point,’’ Gen Musharraf said in a televised speech to the nation on Monday night. ‘‘I need your strength to go forward. Your decision will be fully acceptable and final for me.’’

More than 60 million Pakistanis, aged 18 years and above, are eligible to vote. Turnout was only about 35% in the last parliamentary elections in 1997.

Gen Musharraf seized power in a coup in 1999. The Supreme Court endorsed him but gave him three years to introduce reforms and return the country to democracy.

The president called the referendum to extend his term of office before the deadline is up in October, when the next parliamentary elections are to be held.

He says another five years will ensure the continuity of economic reforms, help eliminate deeply rooted corruption and boost efforts to fight religious extremism.

His critics say the referendum is an attempt to hold on to power and institutionalize the military’s political role in this poor Islamic nation.

But his political rivals have failed to mobilise public opinion against him, however, mainly because they are tainted by corruption scandals.

Hard-line Islamic groups, outraged by Gen Musharraf’s decision to abandon the Afghan Taliban and side with the US-led coalition against terrorism, are also opposing the referendum.