By DPA
Islamabad : Pakistan’s former prime minister and opposition leader Benazir Bhutto said Thursday that her power-sharing talks with President General Pervez Musharraf were suspended since his imposition of the emergency rule last week.
“Our negotiations with President Musharraf for the restoration of democracy has stopped since he suspended the constitution and will be continued only after the constitution is restored,” she told reporters in Islamabad.
Bhutto, a two-time prime minister, was engaged in a power-sharing deal with Musharraf for several months under which she provided covert support to the army general in the Oct 6 presidential vote. In return she was allowed to end her eight-year exile.
But the deal remained in limbo as Musharraf’s victory was challenged in the Supreme Court, which ordered to withhold the vote results until the final verdict, prompting him to impose a state of emergency.
Bhutto also demanded the restoration of the deposed judges.
She announced to join countrywide protests against imposition of authoritarian rule, starting with a scheduled rally in Rawalpindi Friday.