(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-11-23 14:51

The government of the Northwest Frontier Province on Thursday released all the detained leaders of the Nawaz faction of the Pakistan Muslim League, led by exiled former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

They were arrested on November 9 during a protest rally at Peshawar, the official Associated Press of Pakistan reported.

The government said Wednesday it had released more than 5,000 lawyers, judges and political workers detained under emergency, leaving another 600 to be released.

The Supreme Court dismissed the last petition against Musharraf's re-election Thursday, paving the way for the election commission to officially announce the October 6 presidential election results in favor of the army general, who has promised to shed his army uniforms once re-elected.

The opposition, including the Pakistan People's Party led by former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, continued calling for lifting emergency and accused the ruling party of already rigging the elections.

Cricket legend and chairman of the Pakistan Tehrik Insaaf (Justice Movement) Imran Khan, detained after imposition of emergency and released Wednesday, called Thursday for boycott of the elections.

Bhutto was obviously facing a tough choice over the next move of her party, giving green light Thursday for party members to file nomination papers while leaving the boycott choice open.

The caretaker government has repeatedly called for participation by all parties in the elections and tried to fend off pressures exerted by western countries on Pakistan to lift emergency, saying that Musharraf had led the country into fast economic development and that it had been making efforts to ensure the fairness and transparency of the upcoming elections.

   1 2   

   1 2