Bhutto Attacks Musharraf for `Mini-Martial Law`

`We condemn this martial law. We will protest it,` Bhutto said in a news conference in the southern city of Karachi.

Former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto described the imposition of emergency rule by President Pervez Musharraf on Saturday as "mini-martial law" and vowed that her party would protest against it.

"This is a mini-martial law," Bhutto said in a news conference in the southern city of Karachi a little over an hour after arriving back from Dubai, where she had been visiting her family. "We condemn this martial law. We will protest it."

Musharraf earlier imposed emergency rule, deploying paramilitary troops and sacking a top judge in a bid to reassert his flagging authority against challenges from Islamist militants, hostile judges, and political rivals.

Bhutto had been negotiating with Musharraf over Pakistan's transition to civilian-led democracy.

She returned from self-imposed exile last month without fear of prosecution in old corruption cases thanks to an amnesty granted by Musharraf.

The suicide attack that greeted Bhutto in Karachi, killing 139 supporters and members of her security team, shocked the country and the world.

There has been speculation that the pair could share power after elections that had been expected in January, if Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party performed well in the polls and Musharraf fulfilled a promise to quit as army chief.

Bhutto said she planned to discuss with other political leaders a strategy for reversing Musharraf's decision to suspend the constitution.

"PEOPLE WANT LEADERSHIP"

"People want leadership. I came back to the country so that I could encourage the people, raise their morale," she told Britain's Sky News shortly after arriving back in Karachi.

"I plan to meet with other leaders of political parties and discuss with them a course of action to reverse the suspension of the constitution," she said.

Instead of moving towards democracy, Pakistan was moving backwards towards greater dictatorship, Bhutto said.

She said she believed emergency rule was designed to delay elections, due in January.

"I believe General Musharraf and people who are under him want to use this emergency to delay elections and they want to delay elections for at least one to two years," she said.

"We very much want elections to be held on schedule but unless the constitution provisions that have been suspended are restored it's going to be very difficult to have fair elections," she said.

Bhutto urged the international community to put pressure on Musharraf to reverse his decision so that free and fair elections could be held.

She said she did not know if she would be arrested for coming back and taking a stand.

She said that unless Musharraf could move Pakistan towards stable institutions, "then I'm afraid the threat of chaos internally will remain."

Militants in Pakistan were a small, but strident, minority, she said. "It's democracy that can mobilise the middle ground," she said.