ISLAMABAD, Dec 15: President Pervez Musharraf on Saturday said that he was lifting the state of emergency before schedule, but at the same time declared that no agitation would be tolerated. It was a clear warning from the president to lawyers, opposition parties and members of civil society organisations who had been staging demonstrations against the sacking of judges.

“I appeal to all parties to ensure peace during the elections and accept its verdict without resorting to blame games,” he said, adding that candidates winning the polls should respect and show magnanimity to their opponents and people who failed to be elected should accept their defeat with grace.

“Boycott will not benefit anyone.”

Defending the decision to impose the state of emergency, the president assured the nation and the international community that the Jan 8 elections would be fair, free and transparent.

“I had reluctantly decided to impose emergency and issued the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO). I was left with no option but to ensure at all costs that the country did not slide towards instability,” he said during his 25-minute address to the nation on radio and television.

“I admit that I took a huge risk and did not bother about my reputation and imposed the emergency only to pull the country from a crisis that was created by some people,” the president said. “With hindsight, I regard my decisions to be correct and justified.” However, he repeatedly assured that the elections would not be rigged and politicians should not pre-judge it. “I assure you that the elections will be completely free of any manipulation and I ask the international community to send any number of observers to monitor these elections,” the president said.

Terming Dec 15 a very important day in Pakistan’s history, he said on this day, emergency was being lifted a day before the schedule and the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO) was also being repealed. “The Constitution is being fully restored.”

“Now the journey of democracy which started in 1999 will be completed with the holding of elections and the formation of a new parliament.”

He said that with the lifting of emergency and the restoration of constitution all the three tiers of the state - judiciary, legislation and executives - would start performing their duties as usual. Since the tension in the entire system, he said, was no more there and everything was back to normalcy, it was decided to revoke previous decisions.

The president also said that restrictions on the media were necessary to ensure a code of conduct and said: “I stand for the independence of the media and hope everyone will perform his duties with a sense of responsibility.”

He said that he had left the office of chief of the army staff, but there had been some delay and he could not keep his promise of doing it on Nov 14.

“I have told you that this delay was because of a conspiracy which I wanted to eliminate first.” He said that some judges of the superior courts were involved in this conspiracy.