ISLAMABAD, Nov 17: President Gen Pervez Musharraf told US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte on Saturday that emergency rule was needed for a peaceful conduct of elections, refusing to set a date for lifting it.

Informed sources said that during a one-hour meeting with the visiting US official, the president also said no political party would be barred from contesting elections and that a level playing field would be provided to everyone.

The president assured Mr Negroponte that free, fair and transparent elections would be held in the first week of January.

The president’s spokesman, Maj-Gen (retd) Rashid Qureshi, told Dawn after the meeting that Mr Negroponte had come to Pakistan to understand the fast developing political situation and the president briefed him particularly about the elections, war on terror and the circumstances in which he was ‘constrained’ to promulgate emergency on Nov 3.

“The president told the visiting US official that the third phase of transition to complete civilian set-up will be achieved by holding free and fair elections,” he said.

The sources said Gen Musharraf told Mr Negroponte that former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was ‘too confrontationist’ and ruled out any further discussions with her over a proposed ‘power-sharing agreement’. It is not known that what was the response of the US official on this comment.

There were speculations that Mr Negroponte would meet Ms Bhutto on Saturday. However, she left Lahore for Karachi in the evening instead of coming to Islamabad.

The president told him that the proclamation of emergency had become ‘necessary’ to fight effectively against terrorists and religious extremists in the country.

The sources said Mr Negroponte sought a date for the lifting of emergency, but the president refused to do so.

President Musharraf insisted that emergency would ensure a smooth political atmosphere, leading to orderly elections.

He said the step was also aimed at arresting the deteriorating law and order situation as well as containing the influence of terrorists who were now heading towards the settled areas of Pakistan.

One of the major objectives of imposing the emergency was to avoid violence and bombings during general elections, he said.

During the meeting, he said, Pakistan-US relations also came up for discussion and that both have similarities of views on various national and international issues.

The president also told the US deputy secretary of state that Pakistan government has decided to raise additional 125 platoons of Frontier Constabulary, 7,000 levies and 1,500 policemen to further strengthen war on terror in the NWFP.

He said that Pakistan’s security forces were fully capable of carrying out operation in the troubled region. Pakistan, he said, did not need any foreign military support in this behalf.

In the context of fight against terrorism, President Musharraf termed unfair and untrue the allegation that political developments had distracted government in its counter-terrorism efforts. He said Pakistan was fully committed to the war on terror.

The president also briefed his guest about the current situation in tribal areas and Swat.

Mr Negroponte lauded the role of President Musharraf in the war against terror and said that the United States would continue its support to Pakistan in this behalf. He appreciated the announcement of the president about the holding of elections in January. Senior US and Pakistani officials were present in the meeting.