"It may happen on Saturday," [Malik Mohammed Qayyum] said. "I know the president, and he will honor his commitment."

At home, [Pervez Musharraf] risks seeing his two main rivals -- former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif -- join forces to oust him. But after purging the Supreme Court of dissenting judges, Musharraf has reined back some of the most draconian elements of what many legal experts are describing as martial law.

[Mohammedmian Soomro] "expressed concern that any precipitate decision by (the Commonwealth) on Pakistan's participation in the Commonwealth would be unfortunate" and urged them to send a delegation to Pakistan to find out more about the situation, [Mohammed Sadiq] said.