Pakistan frees some detainees, sets election date

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Elections for Pakistan's national assembly and its four provincial assemblies have been scheduled for January 8, and thousands of people jailed under emergency rule reportedly have been released, officials said Tuesday.

Opposition parties, including those of former Prime Ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, have indicated they would boycott elections so long as the emergency declaration and suspension of the constitution remained in place.

Opposition party leader and former cricket star Imran Khan launched a hunger strike in jail, saying he would keep it up until the Supreme Court justices sacked last month by Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, were reinstalled.

Khan was jailed last week after escaping house arrest.

In Karachi, police Tuesday cracked down on journalists protesting media curbs under the emergency declaration, according to witnesses and police sources. More than 180 were arrested, and several were badly beaten up by the baton-wielding police -- including two journalists who were in critical condition -- the witnesses and sources said.

Under the November 3 emergency order, Pakistan's government banned independent television networks and, although some restrictions have been eased, at least two major TV stations have been forced to close completely.

A spokesman for Pakistan's Interior Ministry announced Tuesday that nearly all of the estimated 5,500 opposition politicians, lawyers, human rights activists and journalists arrested in the wake of the order will be released.

Javed Iqbal Cheema said more than 3,400 politicians and lawyers were released Tuesday and the remaining detainees will be "released soon."

CNN checked directly with Pakistani prison officials, but was unable to independently corroborate the ministry's assertions about the number of detainees released.

Musharraf moved closer to taking the oath of office for a new term as president Monday when the Pakistani Supreme Court, packed with judges appointed in recent days by Musharraf, dismissed five major petitions contesting the validity of his re-election. One remaining petition will be heard on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Musharraf arrived Tuesday in Saudi Arabia for a two-day visit. He will meet with King Abdullah and other senior officials "to discuss issues of mutual interest," Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Sadiq said Monday.

Saudi Arabia is where Sharif, whom Musharraf deposed in a bloodless military coup in 1999, is in exile. Sharif had tried to return to Pakistan in September but was deported.

The trip is Musharraf's first outside Pakistan since declaring a state of emergency November 3. E-mail to a friend

CNN's Mohsin Naqvi contributed to this report.

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