Share this story!            

Musharraf must go, says Benazir

* PPP chairwoman says she won’t work as PM under Musharraf
* PPP in contact with Nawaz, Qazi to start anti-emergency movement

Staff Report

LAHORE: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairwoman Benazir Bhutto on Tuesday demanded President General Pervez Musharraf quit as president as well as chief of army staff because he was no longer acceptable to her with or without uniform.

Bhutto, talking to the media via a phone call from Senator Latif Khosa’s residence, where she has been put under a seven-day house arrest, said Musharraf was unacceptable after taking so many unconstitutional steps.

Won’t serve as PM: “I won’t serve as prime minister under him because he has repeatedly broken his promises,” she said. Bhutto said that her talks with Musharraf were aimed at a smooth democratic transition, but after the proclamation of emergency she could not hold any further talks with him.

Nawaz, Qazi: She said that she was in contact with various opposition leaders, including former premier Nawaz Sharif and Jamaat-e-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed, to start a joint struggle against emergency rule, adding that she was trying to bring all opposition parties on a minimum common agenda.

In the absence of a level playing field for the opposition, she said, it was not possible for the PPP to contest the polls.

“I call on the international community to stop backing the man whose dictatorship threatens to engulf this nuclear-armed state in chaos,” AFP quoted her as saying.

“The polls seem like nothing more that a stage-managed show to return the Pakistan Muslim League to power ... even if we get power, it will just be a show of power not substantive power,” she said.

Home | Main

Share this story!