THE president of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, signalled yesterday that Benazir Bhutto might serve a third term as prime minister after parliamentary elections next month.

In a televised address he lifted a six-week state of emergency, restored the constitution and introduced measures to strengthen his grip on power.

During the emergency, many of the country’s top judges were dismissed and thousands of lawyers and political opponents jailed. Iftikhar Chaudhry, the sacked former chief justice, remained under house arrest and replacement judges were required to reaffirm their oath of office.

Under the constitution passed after Musharraf seized power in 1999, Bhutto is barred from serving as prime minister as she has held the office twice. But he said: “If she wins enough votes, we may reconsider the third-term condition.”

Bhutto welcomed the lifting of the emergency as a “positive development”, but said her party’s constitutional experts would have to study the small print of the announcement.

Musharraf made no reference to Nawaz Sharif, the two-term prime minister he ousted in 1999. Commentators said they doubted the ban would be lifted for Sharif, who is said to be loathed by the president.

Musharraf had earlier put the country’s nuclear weapons under his direct control. A new prime minister seeking to remove him from office or repeal his amendments to the constitution will have to win a two-thirds majority in the national assembly.

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