ISLAMABAD, 19 December 2004 — Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has said he will continue to stay as army chief, reneging from an earlier pledge to quit the powerful post by the end of the year.

“I will remain in uniform even after Dec 31. I am telling you this for the first time,” Musharraf said in an interview with the private Kawish Television Network late on Friday.

Last year, Musharraf pledged to take off his military uniform by the end of 2004 in return for support for constitutional changes validating his rule and giving him extensive power under a deal with an alliance of Islamist parties.

He said he would continue as Chief of Army Staff and President of Pakistan for supremacy of democracy and national stability.

The president categorically said general elections would be held in 2007.

Musharraf said that he would soon tell the nation about his decision. “I will talk to the nation in a few days. .... and tell them some reasons, and explain that,” said Musharraf, who took power in a bloodless coup in 1999.

Musharraf has earlier indicated that quitting as army chief would undermine Pakistan’s support for the US war on terror and his efforts to make peace with rival India. The military has ruled Pakistan for more than half of the 57 years it has been an independent nation.

Last month, Pakistan’s Parliament passed a law that allowed Musharraf to retain both positions, giving early warning that he was unlikely to leave the army.

Islamist and mainstream opposition parties are furious.

The Islamic Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) alliance held two rallies last week to force Musharraf to quit as army chief. The MMA will hold another anti-Musharraf rally on Sunday in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, near Islamabad. But observers say the opposition’s protest is unlikely to pose any challenge to his rule given the parliamentary majority of the pro-military ruling party and its allies.

Musharraf has survived at least three assassination attempts-two last December-which security officials say were orchestrated by extremists incensed by Musharraf’s US ties. While Western countries have voiced concern over Musharraf’s democratic credentials, criticism has been muted given his role in helping the United States hunt Al-Qaeda militants.

Meanwhile, Interpol is searching for Mustafa gAhmed Muhammad Uthman Abu Al-Yazid, A-Qaeda’s chief financial officer and senior adviser to Osama Bin Laden and has alleged that he is hiding in areas adjoining the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, sources said.

In a letter to Pakistani law enforcement agencies including the Federal Investigation Agency, Interpol stated that Mustafa was an Egyptian and was reportedly a close aide of Bin Laden, sources added.

Mustafa had many aliases including Sheikh Said Al-Misri, Mustafa Abu Yazid, Sa’ad Abu Shayama, Mustafa Muhammad Ahmed and Said Uthman, they said.

Blast in Quetta

Meanwhile, an explosion rocked a key government building in Pakistan’s southwestern provincial capital of Quetta yesterday shattering window panes but causing no casualties, police said.

The blast described as minor occurred in a toilet inside the provincial government secretariat building which houses offices of ministers.

“There was a small explosion in a toilet in the minister’s block on the third floor of the building, but no one was hurt,” Quetta police chief Rafi Pervez Bhatti said.

He said the cause of the explosion was not immediately known.

“The cause is still being determined and it is not clear whether the explosion was caused by a bomb or electric short circuiting,” Bhatti told AFP.

Sparsely-populated Baluchistan is riven by unrest. Some tribal leaders are opposing a government plan to establish at least three garrisons in the region, which is rich in natural resources.

The low-level tribal uprising is also fuelled by resentment that foreign investors and richer neighboring provinces are creaming off profits from the region.

Last week 11 people including an army soldier were killed when a powerful bomb exploded at a crowded market place in Quetta.