ISLAMABAD, 6 August 2007 — Acting chief of opposition Pakistan Muslim League (N), Javed Hashmi, left Lahore in a motorcade yesterday for Islamabad, to attend the current session of the National Assembly today.

An outspoken leader, Hashmi, yesterday demanded that President Pervez Musharraf step down so that upcoming elections could be held free of government interference.

Hashmi, the leader of exiled former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s party, also addressed a news conference in Gujarat yesterday a day after being released from prison on bail almost four years into a 23-year sentence for trying to incite a mutiny against Musharraf.

He said Musharraf should allow Sharif and another exiled former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, to return to Pakistan to contest elections due by early 2008. Presidential elections are also expected soon, with Musharraf seeking another five-year term. Hashmi said Musharraf should step down to prove that he was committed to free and fair elections. “A man who held presidential elections according to his own wish, how can he be expected to hold transparent elections,” Hashmi told the news conference.

He also said that Benazir should not strike a deal with the military ruler in the larger interest of the country. In remarks aired yesterday, Benazir reiterated her demand that Musharraf quit the army if he wants another term as president.

“We are opposed to everything to do with a uniformed presidency whether it is elections now or tomorrow or the day after,” Benazir said in comments broadcast by Geo TV. She also warned that Musharraf would face legal challenges if he sought re-election from the current crop of lawmakers instead of those chosen at the upcoming elections. Musharraf was elected by the current group, but getting enough from the next assembly is more uncertain.

“We think election from these assemblies will be disputed and this matter will definitely be challenged in the court,” Geo quoted Benazir saying at a news conference during a visit to New York.

Musharraf is facing the toughest period of his rule since he ousted Sharif in a bloodless coup eight years ago, with a combination of rising militant violence and growing political demands for the restoration of full democracy.

Attacks and clashes on Saturday killed 23 people in the northern tribal regions, where pro-Taleban militants have been waging a campaign against Musharraf’s administration, a key US ally in the fight against terrorism. It was the latest in almost daily violence that has killed more than 350 people in the past month.

The Supreme Court granted Hashmi bail on Friday on charges of treason and inciting an army mutiny against Musharraf. Hashmi will be free while the court considers whether it should review his case, which rights and opposition groups have criticized as politically motivated.

Hashmi told hundreds of members of the PML-N who had gathered to greet him outside the prison that “true freedom for me will come the day when we will get rid of those generals who toppled the elected government.” Hashmi vowed to move to courts against the killing of veteran Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Bugti, army operation against clerics of the Red Mosque as well killings in the northern tribal regions.

He urged Pakistan’s main opposition groups to unite against Musharraf. “We should get rid of dictatorship, this should be the agenda of all parties,” he said. The three-judge panel that bailed Hashmi included Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry. Chaudhry may rule on flagged constitutional challenges to Musharraf’s bid for another term as president.

The PML-N is one of the main groups on Pakistan’s fractured political scene, and Sharif remains its powerful figurehead. It had been in an anti-Musharraf alliance with Benazir’s party until last month, when speculation intensified about a power-sharing deal between Benazir and Musharraf.

Benazir said her party has not yet decided whether to support Musharraf in his re-election bid, stand its own candidate for president, or boycott the vote.

Sharif appealed to the Supreme Court last week to be allowed to return from exile to contest parliamentary elections later this year. Musharraf has said he would block any such attempt.