Islamabad: Pakistan's military regime has ruled out the imposition of martial law if political parties failed to cobble a coalition government and said the election of the Prime Minister and Speaker of the newly elected National Assembly would be held through a secret ballot.

Ruling out imposition of martial law, Pakistan's Minister for Information Nisar A Memon on October 22 told reporters at Muzzafarabad that President Pervez Musharraf would transfer power to the elected civilian government next month.

He said the newly elected members of the national and Provincial Assemblies would take oath under the 1973 Constitution as demanded by several mainstream political parties. But he has little clue about who would be forming the new government, as the pro and anti-Musharraf parties that failed to win the majority in the October 10 polls were unable to break the impasse over their differences to cobble a new coalition.

Meanwhile, Federal Law Minister Khalid Ranjha, who created a stir on October 22 night by announcing that Musharraf would not nominate a new elected government or name the Prime Minister, further clarified that the new Premier and Speaker would be elected by the National Assembly through a secret ballot.

The minister, who briefly appeared in an interview, on the state-run television, however, was at loss to explain who would nominate the pro-term Speaker, as the Speaker was not "legally alive" due to the imposition of the Army rule in 1999.

The confusion was further confounded by reports that the controversial Chief Election Commissioner Irshad Hassan Khan, who was accused of nursing bias towards Musharraf's administration by the political parties planned to preside over the first session of the National Assembly to administer oath to the members.

Significantly, Ranjha has hinted in his interview to official APP news agency on October 22 that the Election Commission would be empowered to decide as to who would preside the first session of the National Assembly.

Ranjha said Musharraf would not play any role in appointing the Prime Minister. "The Constitutional clause that empowers President to nominate Prime Minister stands suspended," he said.

Instead the Musharraf government preferred the Parliament itself electing a new Prime Minister, he said.

Ranjha also ruled out Musharraf initiating any talks by the political parties. Asked if Musharraf would invite political parties for consultations, he said, that, "any visible effort on the part of the government would send a wrong signal".

About criticism that government deliberately delayed convening of the Parliament session, the minister said the first session of the new Parliament will be convened after completion of the electoral process that includes elections on the reserved seats for women and minorities.

PTI