Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf expressed hope that India will resume its cricketing ties with Pakistan with their scheduled visit in 2003.
The ceremony was attended by former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, members of his Cabinet, National Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain, governors and provincial chief ministers, services chiefs, senators, federal secretaries, political leaders, diplomats and high civil and military officials.
"There is a mother of all battles in Iraq, and this will be the mother of all elections from Pakistan's point of view. They (polls) are very, very critical," he said in an address to the National Library is Islamabad.
In another strong indication how difficult it would be for the former military ruler to cling on to power, the poll found that the two main opposition parties -- the Pakistan People's Party and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) -- had a combined backing of an overwhelming 72 per cent.
Kashmir has to be settled in an 'equitable and honourable way acceptable to India, Pakistan and Kashmiris', he said.
Apart from the retired service chiefs, dozens of former commanders and some retired junior commissioned officers, who met in the garrison city of Rawalpindi on Tuesday, blamed Musharraf for the current crisis in Pakistan and asked him to step down.
Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf is planning to attack Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry again with the active support of Benazir Bhutto and covert support of the United States. High level meetings are going on in Islamabad in the last two days to chalk out a new strategy against Justice Chaudhry who is becoming a real threat to the Musharraf-Benazir understanding by puncturing the presidential ordinance through which PPP leaders were granted amnesty.
The Pakistan Muslim League-N chief said his party will not accept any national unity government headed by Musharraf.
The hardline faction of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, however, said it was no permanent solution to the Kashmir issue.
President Pervez Musharraf has asked former prime minister Benazir Bhutto to delay her return to Pakistan from a self-imposed exile till the Supreme Court decides on petitions challenging his re-election.
In a fresh salvo against his detractors, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has said he will not quit his post or leave the country because he still has a role to play, along with the political parties, in steering the country out of the 'present crisis'. Criticising reports that he might attempt to flee the country or be arrested, Musharraf made it clear that he has no intention of going abroad.
Pervez Musharraf has expressed willingness to drop the cases pending against Nawaz Sharif and other political leaders as part of his national reconciliation efforts. His comments came a day after former premier Benazir Bhutto was offered amnesty.
Blaming President Pervez Musharraf for running down the country, former Pakistan premier Nawaz Sharif has demanded his resignation and renewed call for the formation of a government of national consensus to ensure free and fair general elections on January 8 as scheduled.
"Any agreement on Kashmir should be pursued with good intentions and sincerity keeping in mind the aspirations of the people of Kashmir to take this process forward," he said.
The US has said the Bush administration's continuing support for the military ruler for short-term benefits will only make a bad problem worse
They were arrested from a mosque in Lahore, the Daily Times newspaper quoted sources as saying on Sunday.
In an interview to Washington Post the Pakistani president indicated that he may renege on his pledge to step down as army chief.
The United States has welcomed President Pervez Musharraf's decision to lift emergency rule on December 16, calling it a positive and significant step to steer Pakistan back towards democracy. "It's a positive and significant step. We look forward to the elections taking place in early January," US State department spokesman Sean McCormack said in his briefing.
The presidential oath was administered by Pakistan's Chief Justice Abdhul Hammed Dogar. Interestingly, Musharraf took the oath of office under the Pakistani constitution and not under emergency regulations.
'It is very troublesome. It is a precarious situation. Musharraf is not a wonderful leader. He has done a lot of bad things. There is a dangerous radical element within Pakistan. I think there is a smart path for America on this, understanding how volatile the situation is,' Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said on CNN's Late Edition programme.
The satirical romp about the war on terror follows the story of an innocent young flower seller from the mean streets of Jalalabad to the midst of a sleeper cell in the West. He's helped by a very friendly local terrorist -- and an unusually proactive TV reporter in search of a 'killer' story.
Heaping scorn at a audio tape purported to be from Al Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri seeking the overthrow of his government, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on Friday asserted he would "eliminate" all Al Qaeda terrorists.
Pakistan-India bilateral relations remained frozen for the fourth year over the vexed Kashmir issue but analysts hope the strained ties could be repaired if Nawaz Sharif becomes the prime minister for a record fourth time in the general elections in February in the absence of his main challenger Imran Khan who is in jail in multiple cases.
Asked if he would agree to a power-sharing deal with Musharraf, Zardari told a magazine: "It's too early and our wounds are too deep to think of having any working relationship with the ruling party or President Pervez Musharraf."
Describing the re-election of President Pervez Musharraf as a "perversion of democracy," a leading US daily has asked his "enablers" in Washington to make it clear to the general that he must respect the decision of Pakistan's Supreme Court.
The Pakistan government on Thursday dismissed former President Pervez Musharraf's suggestion that the country should be open to the idea of establishing relations with Israel, saying such a move could not be considered as it did not recognise the Jewish state.
'In Pakistan, people have started believing that democratic forces will win this battle and the army will go back to the barracks, this time forever.'
US President George W Bush on Friday acknowleged the role of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in the ongoing war against terrorism saying Musharraf's decision to fight terror was made at "great personal risk".
The United States on Thursday said that President Pervez Musharraf has not taken its advice not to impose emergency in Pakistan. "President Musharraf oversees a sovereign nation, and we urged him not to take this step of establishing a state of emergency. He did not take our advice. We consider it a setback because it was outside of the constitution, calling that state of emergency," White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said.
Defending his claim that Musharraf had met Chetia, Local Government Minister and ruling Awami League's general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam said, "We've the evidence. We've not made any statement without evidence. I am aware that no comment should be made about a president without any evidence."
Pakistan's former president Pervez Musharraf has deferred his plans to return home from self-exile after repeated threats by the country's leadership that the former general would be arrested upon arrival, an official of his party said on Friday.
A Pakistani court on Thursday allowed the trial of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf for sacking and detaining dozens of judges in 2007 to be conducted at his farmhouse that has been declared a "sib-jail".
"We are aware of the anxiety of the government. I assure you that the case will be decided next week," said Justice Javed Iqbal, the head of the 11-member bench that is hearing five petitions opposing Musharraf's candidature in the presidential poll on the ground that he had not quit the post of Army Chief. The military ruler cannot be sworn in till the apex court rules on the petitions, and this has prolonged the political uncertainty in the country.
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