ISLAMABAD, 21 September 2007 — President Gen. Pervez Musharraf will seek a new five-year term in a presidential election set for Oct. 6, officials said yesterday even as opponents urged the courts to stop him from running and vowed to quit Parliament in protest.

Musharraf has said he will retire from the army if elected by Parliament and provincial assemblies. His allies have a majority in those bodies, but opposition parties are trying to block his plan, and there is growing speculation he is finally losing his grip on power after taking control in a coup eight years ago.

The Election Commission yesterday announced that the ballot by federal and provincial lawmakers would be held Oct. 6. It said that nominations for the election must be filed by Sept. 27.

The Supreme Court is hearing a set of petitions challenging Musharraf’s right to retain his dual role, the legality of being elected while in uniform, and whether he should be allowed to get a mandate from the sitting assemblies before they are dissolved for a general election due by mid-January.

A ruling on the general’s eligibility to contest the vote could come within days. The court yesterday rejected one petition against recent changes to the election rules that favor Musharraf. Judge Rana Bhagwandas gave no grounds for the decision.

Opposition parties are threatening to boycott the vote to deny it legitimacy, a move that could prolong Pakistan’s political uncertainty. There is no sign they will field a candidate of their own.

Government officials confirmed that Musharraf intended to run. Information Minister Mohammed Ali Durrani said the announcement of the election date was “a good day in the history of Pakistan.” Musharraf’s current term expires Nov. 15.

Musharraf’s opponents, including members of the party of exiled former Premier Nawaz Sharif, whose government fell to Musharraf’s coup eight years ago, and a six-member alliance of Islamist parties, said their lawmakers would quit Parliament if the Election Commission accepts Musharraf’s nomination papers.

They vowed to mount street protests, starting today, as well as more legal challenges to stop Musharraf. A lawyers’ association said it would physically try to block the Election Commission from accepting Musharraf’s nomination papers.

“The letter and the spirit of the constitution do not permit President Musharraf to be a candidate,” said Sadiq ul-Farooq, a leader of Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N party. Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azim dismissed their concerns. “The opposition should come up with its own candidate to participate in the contest, if they have any,” he said.

The party of another former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, whose talks with Musharraf over a possible power-sharing deal have stalled, has threatened to join the opposition boycott unless the president relinquishes his army post first.

Benazir says she plans to return from exile to Pakistan on Oct. 18 to contest legislative elections regardless of how the talks fare. “I do not know what awaits me, personally or politically, once I leave the airport. I pray for the best and prepare for the worst,” she wrote in a commentary published in yesterday’s Washington Post.

— Additional input from agencies