President Pervez Musharraf will lift the state of emergency on December 15, a day earlier than previously planned, Attorney General Malik Muhammad Qayyum told AFP on Friday. "The emergency will be lifted on December 15," Malik Qayyum said. Musharraf had earlier pledged to lift the state of emergency on December 16.

The announcement by the attorney general, who is also the government's chief lawyer, could not be immediately confirmed to AFP by a very close aide of president Musharraf. Musharraf declared the state of emergency on November 3 to tackle what he said was growing Islamic militancy and an interfering judiciary.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2007