Pakistan presidential election on Sept 6: commission

Musharraf, a key U.S. ally, stood down on Monday after nine years in power in order to avoid the threat of impeachment by the ruling coalition government.

"Presidential elections will be held on September 6. The nomination papers can be filed from August 26," election commission secretary Kanwar Dilshad told a news conference.

Nomination papers will be scrutinized on August 28 and the final date for any withdrawals will be August 30, Dilshad added.

The new president will be elected by a simultaneous sitting of the upper and lower houses of the national parliament and the four provincial assemblies, he said.

MPs of the party of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto, the biggest party in the coalition, have urged her widower Asif Ali Zardari to stand for president but he has not said whether he will do so.

NEW DEADLINE

Sharif agreed on Friday to a debate in parliament next week on the restoration of judges deposed last year, putting back a deadline on a demand that could split the ruling coalition.

A day after militants carried out their most deadly strike against the military, killing 67 people in suicide blasts outside the main defense industry complex, coalition parties were still preoccupied with the controversy over the judges.

Investors and allies had hoped the resignation of close U.S. friend Pervez Musharraf as president on Monday would end wrangling that has distracted attention from the nuclear-armed country's deteriorating economy and militant violence.

But the party of murdered former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and its old rival and main coalition partner, Sharif's party, have failed to agree on restoring the purged judges.

Sharif has been demanding the judges be restored to the bench and had threatened to pull his party out of the coalition if that was not done by Friday.

But he told a news conference he had agreed to a parliamentary resolution and debate on the restoration, while setting a new deadline of Wednesday.

"This resolution should be tabled before parliament on Monday ... On Wednesday, it should be passed and the judges restored," Sharif said.

Bhutto's party is reluctant to restore the judges because of concern the deposed chief justice might take up challenges to an amnesty from graft charges granted to Zardari and other party leaders last year, analysts say.

Sharif withdrew his ministers from the cabinet after Bhutto's party missed an earlier deadline for action on the judges.

But even if his party were to move to the opposition benches in parliament it would not force a parliamentary election, analysts say.

Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) is the biggest in parliament and should be able to gather enough support to remain in government.

Photo: AFP