Pervez Musharraf

With the party of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto pushing for elections to be held on schedule next week, President Pervez Musharraf's government appeared poised Monday to postpone the vote well into February. Pakistan's Election Commission, which is made up of Musharraf supporters, was to have announced today that the vote would be delayed. But the decision was so contentious that the announcement was put off until Wednesday.

Candles flicker, petals scatter and bouquets slowly wilt at the spot where Benazir Bhutto was slain. Although some passers-by still break down in tears at the sight of this makeshift shrine, the pressing question for many Pakistanis as the outpouring of grief over her assassination subsides is whether President Pervez Musharraf will manage to survive this crisis, as he has so many others. In the first days after the Dec.

Broadcasts by the private Geo television network resumed Monday in Pakistan more than 2 1/2 months after its transmission was blocked during a state of emergency. Geo News and its sister sports channel came back on the air hours after President Pervez Musharraf began a four-country trip to Europe, where he expected to face tough questions on media restrictions and human rights.

Meeting with European leaders over the last few days, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has played the card that proved a winner for him in the past: Their continent's security depends on Pakistan, and Pakistan's security depends on his game plan. The embattled Pakistani leader went home with far less than a resounding endorsement.

President Pervez Musharraf's party appeared headed for a decisive defeat at the hands of two opposition parties today after a tense nationwide vote, according to unofficial preliminary returns and local media projections. Formal and final results may take one or two days, but a forceful voter rebuke to the president, a close U.S. ally, could have broad repercussions for Pakistan's role in confronting the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

For the first time in three months, Aitzaz Ahsan was back in his study Tuesday, surrounded by bound volumes of U.S. Supreme Court rulings, photos of himself clashing with riot police, and television cameras ready to catch his first words to the outside world after a long, enforced silence. He wasted no time getting to the point. "The best option for Musharraf is that he should quit," Ahsan declared, referring to the man who had ordered him confined and muzzled since November.

Calls mounted Tuesday for President Pervez Musharraf to step down after his ruling party suffered a resounding defeat in elections that independent monitors described as having been generally free and fair. But the door also appeared open to the formation of a governing coalition that could allow the Pakistani leader to remain in office, though with his previously sweeping powers curtailed.

The legislative elections that radically reshuffled political power in Pakistan this week also have thrown the Bush administration's efforts in the country into even deeper disarray. The election handed new power to two opposition parties that are at best ambivalent about Washington's chief interest in the South Asian country: the military pursuit of Islamic militants. And it gave rise to widespread suspicions that U.S.

Signaling a break with Washington's longtime dependence on President Pervez Musharraf as the overriding political force in Pakistan, two senior U.S. envoys held talks Tuesday with the country's new prime minister and other leaders of the erstwhile opposition. The round of discussions involving Deputy Secretary of State John D.

Tens of thousands of protesters swarmed into Pakistan's capital for a raucous rally led by lawyers demanding the reinstatement of judges and the ouster of President Pervez Musharraf. The gathering, which began Friday amid sweltering heat and continued until around dawn today, threatened to widen a rift within the governing coalition. Some analysts said it could prod the partners to find a way to restore the justices and hasten the exit of the unpopular U.S.-backed president.