Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz says the country will hold a national election on schedule, despite the imposition of emergency rule.
"Our thinking about the election is that it will be held according to schedule," Mr Aziz told a news conference.
But he did not specify whether he meant the polls would take place in January.
Pakistan has detained about 1,500 people in a police crackdown since President Pervez Musharraf declared an emergency in the nuclear-armed nation at the weekend,.
A senior police official in Punjab province said 700 people have been detained or arrested, the majority of them lawyers, while police in southern Sindh province put their figure at 500.
The rest of the detentions were in the capital Islamabad, North West Frontier Province and south-west Baluchistan, the sources said.
Human rights
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour has sharply criticised the imposition of a state of emergency and the imprisonment of judges and politicians.
"A state of emergency should only be used to deal with a dire security threat to the nation, not to undermine the integrity and independence of the judiciary," she said in a statement.
Dr Arbour expressed concern about reports that leading judges, lawyers and political activists had been detained or placed under house arrest, including the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion and belief, Asma Jahangir.
General Musharraf imposed a state of emergency on Saturday, citing spiralling militancy and a hostile judiciary.
The move came as the Supreme Court was due to rule on the legality of his October 6 re-election as president.
Dr Arbour said she was alarmed by the suspension of fundamental rights under the state of emergency.
Under international law, the right to life and prohibitions on arbitrary detention, torture and cruel or inhumane treatment cannot be suspended even in emergencies.
The UN human rights chief called on Pakistani authorities to clarify the status of those detained and to ensure that "no one is detained for the peaceful exercise of their political beliefs."
Meanwhile US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has called on General Musharraf to hold elections.
"We think that the best thing for Pakistan is to return to a constitutional path and then hold elections," Dr Rice told a press conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah where she has been meeting with Palestinian leaders.
"It is also true that President Musharraf said that he would take off his uniform and that would be an important step." © 2007 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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