Nov. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf said parliamentary elections will be held by Feb. 15, a month later than scheduled, hours after President George W. Bush said he pressed the military ruler to hold polls and relinquish his position as head of the army.

Musharraf ``will also take off his uniform as soon as he takes the oath as president for a second term,'' Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azeem said in a phone interview from Islamabad today. ``No decisions were taken about the end to emergency.''

The decisions were taken in a meeting of the National Security Council, an advisory body on security, Azeem said. Musharraf's five-year term ends Nov. 15.

Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto yesterday said she will lead mass protests to demand an end to emergency rule. Musharraf, facing the stiffest opposition to his rule since he took power in a 1999 military coup, suspended Pakistan's constitution Nov. 3 as the Supreme Court was nearing a decision on the legality of his re-election by parliament and provincial assemblies to a second five-year term as president.

Bhutto appealed to political parties yesterday to join her in a protest march from the eastern city of Lahore to Islamabad on Nov. 13. She is demanding Musharraf step down as army chief by Nov. 15 and hold the parliamentary ballot as scheduled before Jan. 15.

Musharraf imposed emergency rule saying judicial interference in government affairs was hampering the fight against terrorism.

Treason Charges

The government charged three politicians and a union activist with treason for making anti-government speeches in the commercial capital of Karachi, the Associated Press reported. The agency didn't name the accused people.

The Pakistan Bar Council said lawyers will continue to boycott court proceedings until the constitution is restored and asked members to continue their nationwide protests.

``We refuse to go before the judges who have taken oath under emergency rule,'' Khawaja Mohammed Amir, member of the Karachi Bar Association,said on the phone today. ``We will continue to protest and resist despite police action against us.''

As many as 1,000 lawyers, opposition party leaders and their supporters have been arrested since Musharraf's emergency decree. Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who was fired Nov. 3, has called on government officers to reject the order.

The National Assembly endorsed the decree yesterday, the official Associated Press of Pakistan reported. Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party and other opposition lawmakers boycotted the session. Police fired tear gas to disperse legislators protesting yesterday outside Parliament in Islamabad.

President Bush

President George W. Bush said yesterday he telephoned Musharraf and told him he should hold elections soon and step down as head of the armed forces.

Bush told reporters he had a ``very frank discussion'' with the president. He declined to criticize Musharraf and said Pakistan has been ``on the path to democracy.''

Nuclear-armed Pakistan is a U.S. ally in the fight against al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups operating along the mountainous border with Afghanistan. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte told Congress yesterday the country is ``too vital to our interests'' to break off or downgrade relations.

Bhutto, a former prime minister, returned to Pakistan last month after eight years in self-imposed exile.

Power-Sharing Deal

She had been involved in power-sharing negotiations with Musharraf, 64, who gave her amnesty on corruption charges she faced and agreed to give up control of the military by Nov. 15. In return, Bhutto didn't object to him being re-elected president by the current Parliament.

Bhutto, 54, said her talks with Musharraf reached a ``deadlock'' when the general imposed emergency rule and she has no meetings scheduled with him.

``We were engaged in a political dialogue for peaceful transition to democracy,'' Bhutto said yesterday. ``Now we find ourselves back in a dictatorship.''

Bhutto, who was prime minister twice between 1988 and 1996, demanded the government lift a ban on people holding the office three times.

She is scheduled to address a rally in Rawalpindi near Islamabad tomorrow, ignoring a ban on public gatherings issued by Musharraf.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jay Shankar in Bangalore on jshankar1@bloomberg.net ; Khalid Qayum in Islamabad, Pakistan at kqayum@bloomberg.net .