US against martial law in Pakistan, says Rice

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said that Pakistan must go ahead with elections next year and added that Washington is opposed to any move by President Pervez Musharraf to impose martial law.
"I am not going to get into the details of our conversations, but I think it would be quite obvious that the US would not be supportive of extra-constitutional means," Rice said.
Pakistan needs to prepare to hold free and fair elections, Rice told reporters en route to Turkey.
"The political space needs to be prepared by moderate forces, beginning to work together, which is why we have been supportive of moderate forces like Benazir Bhutto's return, and that moderate forces have a common enemy in the extremists who are so much in evidence," Rice said.
A suicide attack on a Pakistan Air Force bus that killed eight people on Thursday fuelled fresh speculation that Musharraf could invoke an emergency to postpone elections.
Meanwhile, Pakistan's attorney general said yesterday that President Pervez Musharraf does not intend to impose a state of emergency or martial law, despite a spiralling political crisis and Islamist violence.
Most local dailies said Friday that the government was poised to take extraconstitutional measures, while former premier Benazir Bhutto said on Wednesday that she was concerned by rumours about such a step.
Ministers have previously warned that it is a possibility if the Supreme Court overturns military ruler Musharraf's victory in the October 6 presidential vote in a judgment expected in the next two weeks.
But attorney general Malik Muhammad Qayyum -- who is leading the government's case against the legal challenges to Musharraf's re-election -- told the court Friday there were no such plans.
"Who is saying that martial law is going to be imposed? Martial law will not be imposed, not be imposed, not be imposed," Qayyum told the court.
Asked later by an anti-government lawyer about a state of emergency, he replied: "I have been meeting with the president but I have not found any such intention."
Musharraf, who seized power in a coup in 1999, nearly imposed an emergency in August amid a wave of attacks following the storming of the radical Red Mosque in Islamabad and a bruising showdown with Pakistan's chief justice.
But there are signs his patience has worn thin again, with the threat of the Supreme Court ruling his election to another five-year term invalid and a series of other cases that could damage the government.
The court said Friday it would now hear the election case again on Monday and Tuesday next week -- a day after saying it would not sit at all next week -- in a bid to finish by November 15, when Musharraf's term of office ends.
The presiding judge hearing the case, Javed Iqbal, reiterated that the court would not be swayed by threats.
"We will decide this case in accordance with law and constitution... the court cannot be influenced by the threat of martial law or extraconstitutional measures," he said.