Mush has imposed Martial Law not Emergency: Bhutto

Calling the ‘undemocratic’ measure imposed on Pakistan as not Emergency but Martial law, former PM Bhutto attacked Musharraf.

Calling the ‘undemocratic’ measure imposed on Pakistan as not Emergency but Martial law, former premier Benazir Bhutto attacked Pervez Musharraf saying he was worried over the outcome of the Supreme Court judgement on the challenge to his re-election as President in uniform.

Bhutto also warned that the controversial move would feed militants and give them ‘a new lease of life.’

“Gen Musharraf has given supporters and sympathisers in the regime of the militants a new lease of life. He has extended their tenure,” Bhutto told reporters at her Bilawal house.

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The Emergency was imposed not with the stability of the country in mind, she said, adding “Emergency rule is no solution we need to move forward. I am confident the nation will resist this undemocratic step.”

“The militants need the dictatorship,” she said, adding “They feed off each other.”

She said what Musharraf had done was not declaration of emergency but martial law because he has kept the constitution in abeyance and that he has imposed it as Chief of Army Staff and not as a Civilian President.

The two-time premier, who recently returned to Pakistan ending eight years of self-exile, said she agrees with the President that the country was on the verge of destabilization but felt that emergency rule was not a solution.

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“Unless Gen Musharraf reverses the course, it will be very difficult to have fair elections,” Bhutto, who made a quick dash from Dubai here last night after the declaration of emergency.

In a point-by-point rebuttal of Musharraf’s televised address in which he sought to justify emergency, she said “I agree with him that we are facing a political crisis, but believe the problem is dictatorship. I don’t believe the solution is dictatorship”, she said.