ISLAMABAD, 8 November 2007 — Former Premier Benazir Bhutto yesterday urged Pakistanis to join mass protests against a state of emergency, setting up a tense showdown with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf on a day when US President George W. Bush said that he had telephoned Musharraf to deliver the blunt message that he must hold elections as scheduled and quit as army chief.
Benazir said she would hold a rally in Rawalpindi tomorrow despite police threats of a crackdown, and called for a “long march” on Nov. 13 from Lahore to the capital if Musharraf does not repeal emergency rule.
Police tear-gassed and baton-charged hundreds of Benazir’s supporters outside the Parliament building in Islamabad shortly after she spoke. At least three were arrested. “I appeal to the people of Pakistan to come forward. We are under attack,” she told a news conference after holding talks with other opposition leaders in Islamabad.
The two-time premier said that Musharraf must restore the constitution, announce the date of parliamentary elections due in January and quit his role as chief of the powerful army by Nov. 15.
Benazir had previously stopped short of throwing her support behind three days of protests led by lawyers, which have been crushed by security forces, amid speculation she was angling for a power-sharing deal.
“God willing, there will be a flood of people. If I am arrested, people should continue the struggle,” the 54-year-old added. Nearly 1,000 people rallied peacefully in the capital earlier and another 200 protested in Peshawar.
She rejected a warning by the police chief in Rawalpindi that her Pakistan People’s Party would not be allowed to stage its rally there, due to a ban on such gatherings and because of a risk of suicide bombings. “If they try to flout the ban, the law would take its course,” the garrison city’s police chief Saud Aziz said.
The mayor of Rawalpindi said police would be out in force to prevent anyone reaching the park where Benazir hoped to address supporters tomorrow.
International outrage mounted in the meantime, with the White House warning Pakistan its patience was not “never-ending” and that it expects him to return “soon” to the path of democracy. Britain and France also urged Musharraf to hold polls on time.
But Pakistan rejected the “excessive” global criticism. It also brushed off a phone call from US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Musharraf on Monday, with his spokesman saying it involved “nothing of any consequence.” Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told MPs from the ruling Pakistan Muslim League party at a meeting also attended by Musharraf that the date for the vote would be decided by Nov. 14. Musharraf told legislators he wanted the “deviation from the election schedule to be kept as little as possible.”
Pakistan’s Parliament unanimously approved the state of emergency in its first sitting since the weekend, state media said. Earlier, Muslim League chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain told a newspaper that the emergency imposed on Saturday would end in “two to three weeks.” There was no official confirmation. Fresh defiance also came from cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, who made a haggard-looking appearance from hiding on a video in which he urged Pakistanis to “resist” emergency rule.
Musharraf, meanwhile, sought to placate some of his foreign critics, telephoning two influential Democratic lawmakers in the US Congress, which is reviewing the billions of dollars in aid Washington gives to Pakistan, mostly for its military.
