ISLAMABAD/LAHORE, 1 January 2005 — Pakistan’s opposition yesterday geared up for a “black day” of protests after President Pervez Musharraf broke his promise to quit as army chief and accused his detractors of threatening democracy.

Islamic parties and other groups plan to take to the streets on New Year’s Day after the general told the nation in a television and radio address late Thursday that he would not hang up his uniform. Musharraf, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999, has set himself on a collision course with the vocal religious right by going back on a pledge he made a year ago to quit his military role by yesterday.

He accused the opposition, led by the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal Islamic alliance, of destabilizing Pakistan by refusing to accept the “ruling of the majority”. Musharraf, the latest in a series of military leaders who have ruled Pakistan for half its existence since 1947, said he was staying on as army chief to fight terrorism and poverty and continue peace moves with India.

But the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party and the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy all said they would join forces for a “black day” on Saturday.

The Islamic group’s leader Maulana Fazalur Rehman said the countrywide protests would be peaceful. He rejected Musharraf’s criticisms, saying: “Musharraf should have given proof of any threats posed by the opposition to the democratic system.”

The Islamists have already held four anti-Musharraf rallies over the past month. Turnouts have been modest but they hope the general’s latest statements will galvanize support.

Ironically it was the Islamic alliance itself which last year backed constitutional changes giving Musharraf extra powers, a deal they made in return for his pledge to quit the military by the close of 2004. However, last month Pakistan’s Parliament enacted a controversial law allowing him to backtrack. Musharraf said in Thursday’s address that the constitution allowed him to keep both military and civilian roles until 2007.

Musharraf draws most of his power from the army, while his status as a tough-talking ally in the US war on terror has helped to mute criticism from abroad. He will address his own rally today in the eastern industrial town of Gujrat, the native town of Pakistan’s ruling party leader and ex-Premier Chaudhry Wajahat Hussain. “We expect a turnout of around 50,000,” Hussain said.

Recently Musharraf’s government has attempted a reconciliation with opposition groups including the Pakistan People’s Party. In November, Benazir’s husband Asif Ali Zardari was freed after spending eight years in jail.

But the party’s deputy secretary-general, Raza Rabbani, said they would not accept the president with or without his uniform. “The tragedy of Pakistan is that dictators often looked for ways to stay in power and this is what Musharraf is doing,” he told AFP.

Musharraf toppled Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in October 1999. He appointed himself president in June 2001 and won a heavily criticized referendum in April 2002, followed by a parliamentary vote of confidence last December.

Former Human Rights Commission of Pakistan chairman Asma Jehangir warned that Musharraf’s broken promises would increase Islamic militancy. “His decision did not surprise anyone in Pakistan. It is against democratic values,” he said.

Meanwhile, Musharraf yesterday called upon the younger generation to devote its energies to seeking education. He also remarked that the educational institutions should be free of politics. “Political parties should not get students involved in politics,” he said while speaking at the concluding ceremony of the 2-day Punjab Students Convention-2004 at Aiwan-e-Iqbal.

The concluding ceremony was attended among others by Punjab Gov. Lt. Gen. (retired) Khalid Maqbool, Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi, Higher Education Commission Chairman Dr. Ataur-Rehman, Punjab Education Minister Mian Imran Masood and vice chancellors of the state universities.

Musharraf appreciated Pervaiz Elahi’s decision in not reorganizing of the student wing of the PML in the Punjab province. “All political parties should follow this step and let students concentrate only on their studies,” he said, stressing that educational institutions should be left alone and students be allowed to decide their own future.

The president said that the education sector had been badly neglected and had deteriorated in the past, with a paltry sum of 800 million rupees only earmarked for its development just five years ago, while even this amount had nothing to show in uplift of the sector, he added.

“Our government has enhanced the allocation in education sector to Rs. 9.1 billion, bringing a phenomenal nine hundred percent increase”, he remarked. He recalled that when the present government came into power in 1999 there was no planning for vital sectors such as Education and Health, for which effective strategies were evolved later by the present government. Musharraf said that Pakistan possessed the capability of becoming a powerful nation owing to its vast human resources.

Meanwhile, the Sindh police have decided to continue the state of red alert in Karachi and other parts of the province on New Year’s Eve. Inspector General of Police Syed Kamal Shah has issued directives to this effect to Capital City Police Officer in Karachi and regional police officers of Hyderabad and Sukkur.

The IGP also directed the police to remain on high alert and carry out snap checking as precautionary measures and ensure deployment of police personnel at mosques and madrasas. The IGP pointed out that fireworks and aerial firing between the nights of Friday and Saturday, not only cause disturbance to the citizens but also result in loss of lives and property. The IGP further directed that the police should not harass those who come to the recreational places.

In another development, as many as 31 people are feared dead and 15 critically injured as a passenger coach hit an oil tanker and got completely gutted after catching fire near Saeedabad yesterday. The injured, many of them critical, were shifted to a nearby hospital after being extricated from the ill-fated coach which was carrying 44 passengers at the time of accident.

Most of the passengers died on the spot as their vehicle collided with the tanker and immediately burst into flames near Saeedabad, some 230 kilometers northeast of Karachi, highway police officer Faisal Mahmood said. The dead included 12 children of two families trapped within the burning bus.