Musharraf to keep army post if presidency is lost, court told

President Pervez Musharraf will stay on as army chief if he is not reelected, a government attorney said Tuesday, fueling opposition claims that he could be setting the stage to declare a state of emergency.

Atty. Gen. Malik Mohammed Qayyum, who outlined Musharraf’s plans at a Supreme Court hearing on challenges to the president’s candidacy, denied that any moves toward authoritarianism were being considered. “There will be no martial law,” he said. “There will be no emergency.”

That failed to sway members of the opposition coalition, the subject of a crackdown that has landed at least 100 of them in preventive custody and generated sharp criticism from Washington, the European Union and the Pakistani media.