NEW YORK, May 1: The Human Rights Watch on Tuesday asked the United States and the United Kingdom, to urge President Pervez Musharraf to hold free and fair elections to genuinely facilitate return to civilian rule.

The New York-based rights watchdog said in a statement: “General Pervez Musharraf’s insistence on holding onto the office of the army chief as well as the presidency prevents Pakistan from returning to the rule of law under its constitution.”

“(Gen) Musharraf intends to bypass the democratic process ... by staging an illegal presidential election ahead of the parliamentary vote,” said Brad Adams, the HRW’s Asia director. “Pakistan needs legitimate parliamentary and presidential elections to get back on the path to genuine democratic rule. Anything else would be a sham.”

“The Bush administration claims that democracy is one of its foreign policy priorities, but it has failed to pressure Musharraf to end military rule,” said Adams.