TBILISI: A Georgian leader on Friday compared his country’s head of state with President Pervez Musharraf and former Chilean strongman Augusto Pinochet. Shalva Natelashvili, a presidential candidate and head of the main opposition party, said in an interview in Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital: “He (President Mikhail Saakashvili) has the chance to leave politics with dignity like Pinochet did and not to run for the presidency. Today all the world sees how Saakashvili is a big democrat.

“It is a pity that Saakashvili, who had a reputation of a Western-minded politician, has turned into a politician worse than Musharraf.”

Georgia has been rocked by weeks of political turmoil culminating in a bloody crackdown by the authorities against opposition protesters and the imposition last week by President Saakashvili of emergency rule, which was lifted on Friday.

“All political forces representing all political groups of all citizens will have the opportunity to hold political activity without any limits,” said Saakashvili at Tbilisi airport.

He declined to answer a question on when the Imedi TV channel -- the main broadcast outlet for the opposition -- would be allowed back on air, saying he was in a rush for a flight to meet Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev in the regional city of Batumi.

One opposition leader countered that until the channel was back on air, there could be no talk of free elections.

The United States and media watchdogs have called for the channel to be allowed back on air as soon as possible, but a Georgian judge earlier this week imposed a separate ban on Imedi and impounded its equipment.

Masked police also broke into the broadcaster Imedi and smashed up its equipment before forcing it off air, prompting an angry reaction from its operator, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

Tina Khidasheli, a leader of the Republican Party, said until the government restores Imedi TV, there could be no talk of free elections.—Reuters