Defiant Bhutto supporters hold rally
The party of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto vowed today to hold a rally against emergency rule near the capital, despite threats from officials to crush it by force.
"We denounce the government ban, and want to make it clear that our supporters and leaders will reach Rawalpindi for the rally," Babar Awan, a senior member of Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party, said.
The mayor of Rawalpindi, a garrison city just south of Islamabad, said police would be out in force to prevent anyone reaching the park where Bhutto planned to address supporters on Friday.
"We will ensure that they don't violate the ban on rallies, and if they do it, the government will take action according to the law," mayor Javed Akhlas said.
Mr Akhlas said there was a "strong threat" of another suicide attack against Ms Bhutto, who escaped a blast during her homecoming procession in Karachi on October 18 that killed more than 140 people.
A suicide bomber blew himself up a few hundred yards from president Pervez Musharraf's office in Rawalpindi on October 30, killing seven people.
"We cannot take the risk of allowing any political party to hold big rallies," Mr Akhlas said.
A clash with Bhutto's supporters - or another bloody attack aimed at her - could dramatically escalate the political crisis triggered when Mr Musharraf declared a state of emergency on Saturday.
With the encouragement of the United States, Musharraf had been holding talks with Bhutto, widely expected to lead to a power-sharing arrangement after parliamentary elections tipped for January.
That would have introduced more democracy to a nuclear-armed country racked by political uncertainty and rising Islamic militancy that has alarmed the West.
But with the constitution suspended, authorities have detained thousands of opposition activists, lawyers and human rights workers, put a stranglehold on the media and suggested the election could be delayed by up to a year.
Bhutto said yesterday that Mr Musharraf's resort to authoritarian measures was a "breach of trust" with her and that the talks were off.
However, she also suggested that they could resume if circumstances change.
"I think we should all come down as strongly as we can for the restoration of democracy. And if General Musharraf wants to find a way out, well the ball is in his court," she said.
