By DPA
Lahore/Islamabad : Pakistan’s opposition leader and ex-premier Benazir Bhutto, who was placed under house arrest to prevent her from leading a march into the capital, Tuesday rejected President Pervez Musharraf outright, even as a civilian ruler.
“I call on Musharraf to step down, to leave. This country belongs to people, it must return to the people,” Bhutto told a select group of reporters even as her Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) kicked off the proposed march without the leader.
“Pakistan is a nuclear-armed country and it simply cannot afford anarchy and instability,” she said over the phone in the eastern city of Lahore, where she was placed under house arrest Monday.
Bhutto staged a comeback on Oct 18 ending eight years of self-imposed exile reportedly after a power-sharing arrangement with the military president, but she switched sides once General Musharraf declared emergency rule 11 days ago.
“We were in dialogue for a peaceful transition to democracy, but Musharraf abandoned the path and imposed martial law,” Bhutto said. She also struck down the possibility of serving as a prime minister under Musharraf as a civilian head of the state.
Twice deposed on graft and corruption charges, Bhutto has been demanding the lifting of emergency rule, restoration of the constitution, Musharraf’s resignation as the country’s military chief and release of all political prisoners.
Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) planned a “long march for democracy” into the capital city Islamabad, some 290 km northwest of Lahore, Tuesday. However, authorities put the leader under house arrest citing threats of suicide bombings.
“We had one or two confirmed suicide bombers on target in the city (Lahore). We cannot take risks with her life, we are only concerned about her security,” top district administration official Mian Ejaz said.
A suicide bombing on Bhutto’s homecoming caravan in the port city of Karachi killed more than 140 people, mostly PPP’s ardent supporters.
Meanwhile, the opposition party kicked off its protest march from Lahore Tuesday, despite what it termed the unlawful detention of its chairperson.
“We are heading from Lahore towards Kasur on our way to Islamabad now in a procession of around 70 and 80 vehicles,” head of PPP Punjab province chapter Shah Mehmood Qureshi told DPA.
Earlier, scuffles broke out between PPP leaders and riot police when they were prevented from reaching the besieged house where Bhutto had been staying for the last couple of days.
Up to 40 activists, including women and lawmakers, were arrested and thrown into waiting police vehicles and whisked away, a DPA correspondent reported from the scene.
“The general is sitting as a de facto president and the constitution is being suspended,” Yasmin Rehman, a PPP parliamentarian, told reporters just before she was taken into custody.
PPP senior vice-president and former parliamentary speaker Yousaf Raza Gillani was also among those arrested in the protest against Musharraf’s rule.
Multi-tier barricades of iron and barbed wire were put in place across all accesses leading to the cordoned-off house, as police buses and trucks blocked the street ends to foil any attempt by Bhutto to roll past the hurdles in her armoured vehicle.
Despite the crackdown, the party said the planned demonstration would go ahead “at all costs” with its activists ready for “pitched battles” with anyone creating hurdles in their way.
The ex-premier was also prevented from leaving her Islamabad residence last Friday to address an anti-Musharraf rally in the neighbouring town of Rawalpindi.