Pakistan commissioner promises fair poll

Pakistan's top election official, Irshad Hasan Khan, who is also a former chief justice of Pakistan's Supreme Court, has said he will ensure that the national elections General Pervez Musharraf's military government must hold by October are fair.

Political parties in Pakistan have criticised Mr Khan's appointment as the country's Chief Election Commissioner, which was announced on Wednesday.

As Chief Justice of Pakistan's Supreme Court he headed a 12-member bench which upheld General Musharraf's 1999 military coup, saying it was in keeping with what he called the 'Doctrine of Necessity'.

On the same day Mr Khan's appointment was announced, the government also abolished the separate election system for Pakistan's non-Muslim minorities.

This means people belonging to Pakistan's small religious minorities, mainly Christians and Hindus, will now be free to contest elections within the same system as the Muslims who make up most of the population.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service