Bhutto issues Pakistan ultimatum
Benazir Bhutto
Benazir Bhutto wants elections to be held on schedule
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has issued what correspondents say is an ultimatum to President Pervez Musharraf to end emergency rule.

She repeated plans for a rally on Friday, despite an official ban, and called for a "long march" next week unless Gen Musharraf changed course.

She insisted that he restore the constitution, hold elections and resign as head of the army.

Gen Musharraf imposed emergency rule on Saturday after months of unrest.

The authorities have warned that police will not allow Friday's demonstration in Rawalpindi, the country's main garrison town, to go ahead.

The city's mayor, Javed Akhlas, said: "We will ensure that they don't violate the ban on rallies, and if they do it, the government will take action according to the law."

He told the Associated Press there was a "strong threat" of another suicide bomb attack against Ms Bhutto, who survived an assassination attempt in Karachi on 18 October that killed more than 140 people.

Key demands

"I appeal to the people of Pakistan to come forward. We are under attack," Ms Bhutto told journalists.

Lawyers at a protest in Islamabad, 7/11/07
Protests have so far been populated mainly by lawyers

She said if the security forces made it impossible to hold the rally in Rawalpindi it could be held in the eastern city of Lahore.

She also called for a "long march" starting next Tuesday, 13 November, from Lahore to Islamabad, if her key demands were not met.

They are:

* For the state of emergency to be called off, and the constitution restored

* For General Musharraf to stand down as head of the army

* For elections to be held by mid-January

* For the release of all lawyers, judges and activists arrested in the last few days

"How many people can they put behind bars? We will produce so many that they will not have enough jails," she said.

After her news conference police used teargas against a small number of her supporters in Islamabad.

Until now, protests across the country have been limited in scale, with Ms Bhutto refraining from urging supporters of her Pakistan People's Party (PPP) - the country's leading political group - onto the streets.

But correspondents say a huge popular rally could raise the stakes dramatically in the country's political crisis.

Emergency 'to end'

Ms Bhutto was speaking after meeting other opposition groups in Islamabad - though some significant players were missing.


Imran Khan, speaking in a video from hiding
If we do not struggle against this, [Musharraf] will take the country towards destruction
Imran Khan

The important MMA (United Council of Action) - an alliance of Islamic parties - and the PML-N party of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif were not there.

Nor was the Movement for Justice Party of former cricket star Imran Khan.

Mr Khan was one of several leading politicians to be put under house arrest following the decree, which the government issued on Saturday, for what it said were reasons of national security.

However Mr Khan slipped his guards and on Wednesday issued an appeal by video from a secret location.

He said he wanted to galvanise all parts of society towards "massive street protests".

"I think that if we do not resist this, if we do not raise our voices against this, if we do not struggle against this, he will take the country towards destruction," he said.

However, a top official from President Musharraf's ruling party said emergency measures might soon come to an end anyway.

Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League, told the Dawn newspaper: "I'm sure it will end in two to three weeks as President Pervez Musharraf is aware of the consequences of long emergency rule."

But there appears to be a split between those members of the party advocating that parliamentary elections should be held on schedule in January, and those who want them postponed, says the BBC's Barbara Plett in the capital, Islamabad.

ISLAMABAD: "It is over with Musharraf," said Benazir Bhutto. And with those words, analysts say she could unite Pakistan's fractious Opposition and allow them to mount a serious challenge to the military ruler.

The former premier's pronouncement while under house arrest on Tuesday marks a genuine burning of her bridges with President Pervez Musharraf following his declaration of a state of Emergency, according to analysts.

Bhutto followed her rhetoric with ice-breaking phone calls to the party of exiled PM and one-time rival Nawaz Sharif, former cricketer Imran Khan and even to the Islamic fundamentalists she once shunned.

"For the first time I see a possibility of the opposition agreeing on a united stance," leading political analyst Shafqat Mahmood said.

Mahmood predicted they would coalesce under a "one or perhaps two point agenda".

The first would be to push Musharraf to quit, and the second would be for the opposition to boycott elections the president has promised on January 9, robbing them of credibility.

A unified opposition could also produce the "street power" that could drive Musharraf to either back down on emergency rule or step down altogether, analysts said.

Rival parties had voiced suspicions that Bhutto was still secretly in power-sharing talks with Musharraf when her moderate Pakistan People's Party did not join protests for five days after the Emergency began.

Those negotiations, quietly backed by the US and Britain as a way of creating a "dream team" against Al-Qaida, led Musharraf to give Bhutto an amnesty on the corruption charges that drove her abroad in 1999.

But Bhutto gave a barnstorming performance on Tuesday after she was slapped with a seven-day detention order to stop her leading a protest, finally coming out to urge Musharraf to quit as President and Army Chief.

"Before that, I was very, very sceptical of what she was doing, that it might all be an elaborate charade. But to give her credit, it seems she has burned her boats with Musharraf," said Mahmood.

Analysts said Bhutto had likely seen Musharraf's plummeting popularity at home and also the increasingly angry reactions from his Western allies.

She had already sought to win over lawyers, who led the first protests against the Emergency, by trying to visit the sacked chief justice on Sunday, columnist Imtiaz Alam said in Pakistani daily The News .

"Ms Bhutto, once accused of going soft on the regime, has already taken a lead over others by challenging the authoritarian measures taken by the regime," he said.

The White House appeared to see the need for a broader political solution when it called for dialogue between Pakistan's political groups.

Asked about Bhutto's call for Musharraf to step down, spokeswoman Dana Perino cited "a lot of political tension in Pakistan right now" and said "we'll have to encourage continued dialogue between all of the parties there."

Bhutto said Tuesday she was ready for an alliance with Sharif, spoke with Khan and agreed to launch a "joint struggle" with the leader of Pakistan's main coalition of Islamist parties, Qazi Hussain Ahmad.

Sharif welcomed her call for Musharraf to quit as a "positive development." Analyst Hasan Askari said the other opposition parties also appeared to be convinced after earlier believing Bhutto had "some soft corner for Musharraf."

Analysts also warn that the bloodstained feuds that have marked Pakistan's political arena could yet tear any alliance apart, while it will almost certainly not last if they achieve their goal and oust Musharraf.

"There cannot be any election alliance between Bhutto and Sharif, but on the one-point agenda they can work together along with other opposition parties," said Askari.

Jiyeee Bhuutooo

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