Nov. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan will probably announce a new schedule for national elections soon, after President Pervez Musharraf suspended the constitution and imposed emergency rule yesterday for the second time since his 1999 military coup.

``The state of emergency was only declared last night so a lot of things have to be decided,'' Junior Information Minister Tariq Azeem said in a telephone interview today from Islamabad. ``Now that an emergency has been declared, one needs to look at the schedule again, and we will learn in the next day or two what the new schedule is going to be.''

Musharraf in his televised address to the nation yesterday, asked for more time to restore full democracy, without committing to a date for national elections.

The 64-year-old general sacked the chief justice who had opposed him yesterday, less than three months before parliamentary elections were due to be held. The crackdown came as the Supreme Court was nearing a decision on the legality of his re-election as president last month while also serving as army chief.

Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto said the imposition of emergency rule has jeopardized her ongoing power-sharing talks with the army ruler.

``This is a mini martial law and we demand the immediate restoration of the constitution,'' Bhutto told reporters at her residence in Karachi after she returned from Dubai late last night. ``Talks can't continue under martial law and elections cannot be free and fair when the constitution is suspended.''

Heavy contingents of police were deployed around the capital Islamabad and paramilitary forces were positioned at the Supreme Court and parliament buildings. There were no extra deployments of law enforcement personnel in the commercial capital of Karachi.

Some lawyers and politicians were detained by police, the Daily Times reported today. Imran Khan, chairman of Tehreek-e- Insaaf, was placed under house arrest and Aitzaz Ahsan, president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, was detained, the newspaper said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jay Shankar in Bangalore, India on jshankar1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 4, 2007 01:41 EDT