US envoy John Negroponte has urged Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to end emergency rule.
The US Deputy Secretary of State warned General Musharraf yesterday that the rule is not compatible with free and fair elections due by early January and would undermine them.
Mr Negroponte also praised Mr Musharraf's role in the fight against al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, saying Washington valued its partnership with its ally, but bluntly called on him to lift emergency rule.
Mr Musharraf was also called on to release thousands of opposition figures who have been rounded up and imprisoned, and to stick to his word to resign as army chief.
The president has promised elections will be held by 9 January and has said he is determined to remove his army uniform and be sworn in as a civilian president once a pending Supreme Court ruling on his October re-election is out.
However, he has not yet said when he will end emergency rule and reinstate the suspended constitution, or free hundreds of detained lawyers including the former chief justice.
Mr Musharraf has also put curbs on the media, punishable by up to three years in jail, and two leading private news stations say they have been forced to close down altogether.
Mr Musharraf, who took power in a 1999 coup, has defended his decision to declare emergency rule, saying Pakistan's nuclear weapons will not be allowed to fall into the wrong hands while the military is in control of them.
Yesterday, Mr Musharraf said if elections were held in a 'disturbed environment' it could bring in dangerous elements who might endanger Pakistan's 'strategic assets'.
