ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 29 — Hours after being sworn in for a second five-year term today, President Pervez Musharraf announced on television that he intended to lift Pakistan’s state of emergency on Dec. 16.

If he goes ahead with the move, it could be an important step in Pakistan’s recent tumultuous politics, which has seen the president impose emergency rule on Nov. 3, suspending the Constitution, dismissing the Supreme Court and arresting thousands of opponents.

But it remains unclear what the step could actually mean, and whether Mr. Musharraf will release all of the political opponents that remain in detention, or try to prosecute them, and what his response will be if protesters take to the streets after the emergency is lifted. Hundreds of lawyers clashed with the police in the eastern city of Lahore today demonstrating against his new term.

“Right now, I think the dust is settling down and everything is under control,” Mr. Musharraf said, speaking on television beside a Pakistan flag. “I have my intention that I will make this move on Dec. 16.”

All of the decrees issued under the emergency will remain, which means that the current Supreme Court, which was hand-picked by Mr. Musharraf, will stay in place. He dismissed the previous Supreme Court after it threatened to challenge the legitimacy of his re-election, and the former chief justice is still under house arrest.

Mr. Musharraf said Pakistan had faced dangers from terrorism and “societal conflicts,” and he said those who had opposed the emergency had represented a threat to the country.

But he said parliamentary elections would now go ahead as scheduled on Jan. 8 without the need for continued emergency rule, and he called on the opposition leaders Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif to participate fully.

However, the emergency will be lifted just before the start of a major Muslim holiday, which his opponents said will defer campaigning for the elections and give the president further advantage.

Mr. Musharraf took the oath of office as a civilian president here in the capital a day after relinquishing his role as the country’s military chief.

At the official ceremony, he warned assembled foreign diplomats not to force democracy and human rights on developing countries, but to let them evolve in their own time. Many of them had been highly critical of his recent actions.

Dressed in a traditional black tunic favored by civilian leaders, a somber Mr. Musharraf took the oath before a gathering of Pakistani dignitaries and diplomats. He resigned his post as military chief Wednesday, after eight years of military rule, under heavy pressure at home and abroad. He repeated his regrets to be leaving the army after 46 years.

In a speech at the ceremony after taking the oath, he defended his record in power, saying that he had always intended to lead the country toward democracy and to remove his uniform, but had to act in the interests of Pakistan’s stability. He said he had to impose emergency rule on Nov. 3 and delay removing his uniform because of a clash between state institutions, namely the judiciary and the government, and the growing threat of terrorism.

“There is an unrealistic or even impractical obsession with your form of democracy, human rights and civil liberties, which you have taken centuries to acquire and which you expect us to adopt in a few years, in a few months,” he said, addressing the diplomats.

“We want democracy; I am for democracy. We want human rights, we want civil liberties, but we will do it our way, as we understand our society, our environment, better than anyone in the West,” he said.

Mr. Musharraf’s election to another presidential term, and his swearing in, remain controversial. In his oath, he vowed “to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution” of Pakistan, even though he suspended the Constitution three weeks ago when he imposed emergency rule and introduced a provisional constitutional order as military chief. Before resigning from his military post, Mr. Musharraf transferred the powers to rescind the emergency to the presidency.

The presidential oath was administered by the current Supreme Court Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, who was appointed after Mr. Musharraf imposed the emergency and suspended the previous Supreme Court. Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and a number of other Supreme Court judges remain under house arrest, as do four senior advocates who work at the Supreme Court.

The advocates were challenging Mr. Musharraf’s eligibility to run for another presidential term and the Supreme Court was about to rule on his eligibility when Mr. Musharraf imposed the emergency.

In his speech after the swearing-in today, Mr. Musharraf welcomed the return from exile of the opposition leaders Ms. Bhutto and Mr. Sharif, saying their return was “good” for political reconciliation in the country, The Associated Press reported.

The two leaders, both former prime ministers, returned from exile abroad in recent weeks to lead their parties in the parliamentary elections scheduled for Jan. 8, and both had called for Mr. Musharraf to give up his military role and lift the state of emergency.

Mr. Musharraf said he only hoped they would “move forward toward a conciliatory, civilized, democratic and political environment in the future.”

Neither Ms. Bhutto nor Mr. Sharif was present at today’s ceremony in the state palace in Islamabad, The A.P. reported.

In the eastern city of Lahore, at least 250 lawyers led protests against Mr. Musharraf’s swearing-in, clashing with the police in violence that left several of the police and lawyers injured, Reuters reported.

Chanting “Go, Musharraf, Go!”, the lawyers, in black suits and white shirts, tried to push their way past riot police officers, who fought back with batons outside the Lahore law courts, Reuters reported.

“We are not scared,” said one lawyer, Malik Mohammad Arshad, whose eye was swollen and whose head was bleeding after a brick hit him on the head, Reuters reported. “We don’t accept Musharraf even without his uniform. He has to go.”

Eleven lawyers and three policemen were injured in the clashes, and three lawyers were arrested, officials said, according to the news agency.

Carlotta Gall reported from Islamabad, Pakistan, and Graham Bowley reported from New York.

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