Berlin(DPA) : Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf must lift the state of emergency and resign from his position at the head of the country’s military, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto said in an interview published in Germany Wednesday.
Lashing out at Musharraf in the mass-circulation Bild newspaper, Bhutto said: “The dictatorship of recent years has brought nothing but misery.”
“Society has become more militant. Extremism has taken on threatening dimensions. We are heading for a big catastrophe,” said the 54-year-old politician, who recently returned to Pakistan from self-imposed exile in the Gulf.
“General Musharraf must lift the state of emergency as quickly as possible. That is the most important demand,” Bhutto said, adding that elections should be held.
She noted that the general had pledged following his 1999 coup to resign from the military after a brief period, but had failed to live up to his promise.
She warned that extremist forces in Pakistan, a nuclear power, were seeking to take over the country.
“What I am frightened of is that the nuclear-power Pakistan is on the road to jihad, to anarchy,” Bhutto said, adding that the Pakistani military had long since lost control over large parts of the country.
“Safe havens for terrorists and extremists have come into being, from where they can carry on their struggle undisturbed. These forces have taken Afghanistan into bankruptcy and are directly linked to al-Qaeda and the Taliban.”
“Pakistan is approaching a huge catastrophe with giant strides. Only God knows what would happen if the extremists gained full control over the nuclear power Pakistan,” Bhutto concluded.