The voting on Musharraf’s future follows a surprise deal with a coalition of hardline Islamic parties that agreed to support his claim to the presidency in return for a promise that he step down as army chief by the end of 2004.

Musharraf, who took power in a 1999 coup, has held both positions since winning a controversial presidential referendum in 2002 in which he was the only candidate. His term as president expires in 2007.

The Senate today voted 56-1 to give Musharraf the vote of confidence he sought, but dozens of opposition lawmakers staged a walkout in protest.

Pakistan’s 1973 constitution was amended earlier this week to give the general extraordinary powers — including the right to dissolve Parliament and sack the Prime Minister by decree.

The amendment passed with the support of the Islamic coalition, the Muthahida Majlis-e-Amal, after the party reached a deal with Musharraf’s supporters.

Breaking a long silence, exiled former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said the trust vote to be taken by Musharraf in the Parliament and provincial assemblies was an attempt to “hoodwink” the world as under the constitution, no government servant was permitted to contest for any office until two years of his retirement.

Musharraf continues to be the Chief of Army and promised to quit by December, 2004. Until then, he continues to be a government employee, Sharif said in statement from his exile in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

He recalled Musharraf’s opposition to his Lahore Accord with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee which led to Kargil war and said the same person was now making repeated requests to meet the Indian leader during the SAARC Summit.

Condemning the agreement between Musharraf and the Islamist alliance, another former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto said the deal exposed his “hidden agenda.”

Throughout his “unelected rule”, Musharraf had demonstrated hostility towards democratic forces and sympathy from the religious parties, she said in a statement.

This was because the interests of Musharraf and the religious parties “coincide” with each other, Bhutto said.

“The MMA wanted political advantages through the alliance and Musharraf wanted to build up the MMA to frighten world opinion.”

The former Prime Minister said Musharraf was “uninterested” in a meaningful dialogue with the opposition parties.

The removal of fire-breathing Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed from Minister-in-Waiting for Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his replacement with soft-spoken Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz is yet another example of Pakistan trying its best to keep India in good humour.

Pakistan is keen that the SAARC conference in Islamabad (January 4-6) should facilitate revival of talks with India on bilateral issues. But New Delhi has made it clear time and again that there can be no talks until Islamabad were to put a complete stop to cross-border terrorism and dismantle the entire infrastructure of terrorism on a permanent basis. Resumption of a composite dialogue between the two countries seems to be stuck in this groove.

During the past six weeks, a number of developments have taken place between India and Pakistan, which have reinforced the peace process started by Mr Vajpayee in Srinagar on April 18. On November 23, Mr Jamali announced unilateral ceasefire and India accepted it at once. The ceasefire became effective in the next 36 hours covering the entire international boundary, the LoC and the Siachen region.

Following this, Gen Pervez Musharraf gave a green signal to the resumption of air links and overflights, setting aside his country’s earlier conditions. But his most stunning announcement related to Pakistan’s more than five decades old stand on the United Nations resolutions on Kashmir.

He said in an interview with Reuters that Pakistan had set aside these resolutions, stressed that both countries should go ahead beyond their “stated positions” and hoped that India would also show flexibility in its stand on Kashmir. This was promptly followed by a spate of clarifications from Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, his ministers and the Pakistan Foreign Office.

On December 22, General Musharraf had a four-hour-long meeting with Kashmiri leaders where he explained to them the background of his latest U-turn on Kashmir. South Asia Tribune came out with a sensational story, highly damaging to Pakistan, quoting a Pakistani news agency report which had to be withdrawn under pressure of the Pakistani Government as Islamabad did not want to annoy India at this point of time. The most sensitive part of this report was that General Musharraf told the Kashmiri leaders that Pakistan could root out the fence being built on the Indian side of the LoC in Kashmir “at any time of its choice”.

Just on the eve of the SAARC summit, Pakistan said it would not allow its soil to be used for terrorist activities against other countries. India positively responded to all these gestures but noted that Islamabad was not willing to address New Delhi’s major concern: cross-border infiltration and terrorism. General Musharraf was willing to discard, what Mr Jamali called, the five-decade old basis of Pakistan’s Kashmir policy but would not reassure India and the world on its 13-year-old support to terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan’s UN resolutions-based policy did not take it anywhere, but it did not bring bad name to this country either. On the other hand, Pakistan’s policy of terrorism in Kashmir has been boomeranging on it in two ways. First, it has given the country an image of a promoter of global terrorism, especially after the terror attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001. Second, by allowing the breeding of terrorists on the soil of the country in the name of Jehad in Kashmir, Pakistan has itself become their target.

Therefore, it would have helped Pakistan more if General Musharraf had announced that Islamabad would stop cross-border terrorism. By announcing that his country had set aside its insistence on UN resolutions, he has only either thrilled or angered some but it has not helped the cause of peace in the region or even inside Pakistan.

Early this year, General Musharraf had said that no Pakistani ruler could stay in power if he abandoned the country’s Kashmir policy.

That was more than 50 cars less than last year, and the vandalism was confined to 112 specific areas — usually poorer districts where the loss of a car or truck is a heavy financial penalty and can mean the loss of a job.

The ministry said at least 80 persons had been detained for questioning about the arson attacks, and added that the figure was likely to rise throughout the day as investigations proceeded.

In the Paris region alone, 128 cars went up in flames. Thirty-four cars were burned in Strasbourg and its suburbs, which authorities there said was considerably less than in past years.

But the local prefecture said two fire fighters were attacked and injured when they responded to one of the blazes, and a riot police officer was seriously injured on the hand by a fire cracker.