Defiant Bhutto vows mass protest against Musharraf

Police maintained a strong security presence at Bhutto’s Islamabad residence early on Saturday, complete with barbed wire and concrete barriers.

Pakistan’s slide into political uncertainty has accelerated over the past week with military chief Musharraf’s imposition of emergency rule scaring foreign investors and spooking domestic markets. Thousands of Musharraf opponents have been arrested.

Bhutto, the Pakistani politician most able to mobilise masses on the streets, left her residence on Saturday saying she was going to meet civil society groups. She was due to meet foreign diplomats later in the day.

“I thank the international community for standing by the people of Pakistan and supporting people’s democratic aspirations and for elections on time,” Bhutto told reporters as she left her residence in a bullet-proof white Land Cruiser.

She said she would head to Lahore on Sunday, from where her motorcade protest was due to set off for Islamabad on November 13.

“If he restores the constitution, takes off his uniform, gives up the office of the chief of army staff and announces an election by Jan. 15, then it’s OK,” she shouted to supporters across barbed wire on Friday as police used batons and teargas to break up small protests in several parts of the country.

Musharraf has said elections will be held by February 15, about a month later than they were due. He also said he would quit as army chief and be sworn in as a civilian president once new judges appointed to the Supreme Court struck down challenges against his re-election.

Officials say Musharraf will likely keep the Emergency short.

“The Emergency will end within a month or two. It all depends on the law and order situation. If it is normal, the Emergency will be lifted,” said Attorney General Malik Abdul Qayyum.

Bhutto has been holding power-sharing talks with Musharraf for months and political analysts say cooperation between the pair — which the United States was earlier said to have been encouraging — is still possible.

Foreign Pressure

The United States kept up pressure on Musharraf, who took power in a bloodless 1999 coup and is regarded as a close ally in the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban, calling for an end to Emergency rule he imposed a week ago citing a hostile judiciary and rising militancy.

“Free and fair elections require a lifting of the state of emergency,” said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House National Security Council.

The United States also called for the release of political party members and peaceful protesters, he said.

President George W Bush has said Musharraf can’t be army chief and president at the same time.

But many ordinary Pakistanis doubt Musharraf will follow through on his pledge, saying quitting as army chief would erode his authority in the nuclear-armed state.

“All his statements are to control the internal situation and to cheat the West, as he has been doing,” said 40-year-old housewife Razia Ahmed as she shopped at an Islamabad bakery. “Why should he quit?”

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday he was concerned instability could distract Pakistani forces, who have been fighting Islamists in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan — an area in which Osama bin Laden is believed to be hiding.

After imposing emergency rule and suspending the constitution, Musharraf sacked most of the country’s judges, and put senior officials — including former chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry — under house arrest.

He also ordered a round-up of thousands of opposition figures, supporters and lawyers protesting against Chaudhry’s removal.

An Interior Ministry spokesman said 2,500 people had been detained since the emergency was declared, though Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party say 5,000 of their activists have been picked up over the past few days.