Islamabad, Pakistan ? President Gen. Pervez Musharraf will stay on as army chief if he is not re-elected, a government lawyer said Tuesday, fueling claims that he could be setting the stage to declare a state of emergency.

Attorney General Malik Mohammed Qayyum, who outlined Musharraf’s plans at a Supreme Court hearing on challenges to the president’s candidacy, denied any moves toward authoritarianism were being considered.

“There will be no martial law,” he said. “There will be no emergency.”

That failed to sway members of the opposition coalition, the subject of a crackdown that has landed at least 100 party leaders and members in preventive custody – perhaps many more – and generated sharp criticism from Washington, the European Union and the Pakistani media.

The opposition claims Musharraf is growing increasingly desperate to nail down another five-year term.

Liaquat Baloch, a leader of an Islamist party targeted in the clampdown, said he sees the signals for the “continuation of dictatorship.”

“It is now for the Supreme Court to see and check the dictator’s intentions and free the nation from the clutches of this illegitimate rule,” Baloch said.

Imran Khan, an opposition lawmaker who has petitioned the Supreme Court against Musharraf’s re-election plans, rejected the suggestion he could continue as army chief.

“He has taken the whole country hostage through the power of the gun,” Khan told reporters.

Musharraf, a close U.S. ally who seized power in a 1999 coup, has pledged to step down as military chief and restore civilian rule if lawmakers approve a fresh mandate Oct. 6.