Pakistan announces release of jailed political opponents

Law Minister Afzal Hayder announced on state television Wednesday that the government had released 5,634 lawyers and political party members, including Imran Khan, a former cricket star who has become a firebrand in the opposition to President Pervez Musharraf.

Early today, Pakistan’s Supreme Court dismissed a final challenge to Musharraf’s reelection, the new chief justice said, paving the way for him to quit as army chief.

The ruling from a court stacked with the general’s supporters was widely expected.

Musharraf has repeatedly said he would remove his uniform and be sworn in as a civilian leader in what he calls a transition to civilian-led democracy once his reelection was cleared by the court.

Hayder said Wednesday that 623 people remained in custody but that they soon would be released.

It remained unclear when Musharraf might lift the state of emergency that he declared Nov. 3.

Among those freed was Javed Hashmi, acting president of the party of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, whom Musharraf overthrew in 1999. In a phone interview, Hashmi called for opposition parties to boycott planned parliamentary elections Jan. 8 to avoid giving credibility to Musharraf.

Khan, who has a high profile but limited political clout, said he would continue a hunger strike begun in custody and boycott the election in hopes of forcing Musharraf to give up all power.

Musharraf is focusing on preventing Sharif from teaming up with the other key opposition leader, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Their parties are the largest blocs in the opposition.

Bhutto, who returned last month from eight years of self-imposed exile, has talked recently of joining forces with Sharif to drive the general from power if emergency rule is not swiftly ended.

But Sharif, who has been in exile in Saudi Arabia in the years since he was deposed, said that he had failed to persuade her in a telephone conversation Wednesday to join him in boycotting the election.

Bhutto’s party welcomed the release of jailed activists but said that thousands more of its supporters were still in custody.

Washington has been hoping for a rapprochement between Bhutto and Musharraf, a key ally in the U.S. fight against militants linked to the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Bhutto and Musharraf are calling for moderate political forces to reconcile and revitalize Pakistan’s campaign against Islamic militants, who have gained strength in the restive tribal region along the border with Afghanistan.

In the Swat region of the country’s northwest, security forces attacked mountaintop positions of pro-Taliban militants and recaptured a police station, killing an estimated 65 fighters, the army said Wednesday.

It said it cleared militants in the Shangla district of the Swat region, a former tourist destination where supporters of a rebel cleric have been battling security forces since July.

Forty militants were killed in those operations Tuesday and Wednesday, the army said.