Pak to lift emergency within a month if situation improves: AG

The emergency imposed by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf will be lifted within a month provided the law and order situation in the country improves further, a top government lawyer said today.

Attorney General Malik Qayyum said the security situation in Pakistan was the "main reason for the imposition of emergency and its continuance".

"In any case, it won't go beyond two months because we don't want to make it a permanent feature. If the law and order situation improves or if there are no untoward incidents, it will be much sooner than that," said Qayyum, who has emerged as a key figure in the decision-making process in the past few weeks.

He made it clear that the government intended to end the emergency in a month if the law and order situation improved. "I don't see the emergency continuing forever or even after two months," he told Dawn News channel.

"The emergency had its effect and the situation is fast improving," Qayyum pointed out.

Musharraf had cited the internal security situation, especially a spurt in activities by extremists, and judicial "interference" by the superior courts as the main reasons behind his decision to impose emergency on November 3.

Asked about the arrest of a large number of lawyers, who have been at the forefront of protests against the emergency, Qayyum said most of them would be released "within days".

Only lawyers against whom there was evidence and those detained for "heinous crimes" would be held by authorities, he said, adding such cases were "very few".