Bhutto says Musharraf must quit

LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) - Held under house arrest behind barbed wire, Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto called on Tuesday for military leader Pervez Musharraf to quit as president, isolating him in the run-up to a general election.

Britain stepped up international pressure on Musharraf, who imposed emergency rule on November 3 in a move seen aimed at clinging on to power, backing a 10-day Commonwealth ultimatum for him to end the emergency and quit as army chief.

Bhutto has long called for Musharraf to step down as army chief and become a civilian president but it was the first time she had called for him to quit as president altogether -- a move analysts say could sound the death knell for U.S. hopes the pair could end up sharing power.

She also said she would not serve as prime minister under him and her party might boycott general elections Musharraf has promised to hold by January 9.

"It is time for him to go. He must quit as president," Bhutto, who has for months held power-sharing negotiations with Musharraf, told Reuters in a telephone interview as police bundled small clusters of her protesting supporters into vans.

She was speaking in the city of Lahore where she was placed under house arrest for a week, hours before a planned protest motorcade procession to Islamabad against emergency rule was stifled as 20,000 police locked down the area.

Musharraf set off a storm of criticism when he imposed the emergency, suspended the constitution, sacked judges, locked up lawyers, rounded up thousands of activists and curbed the media.

The crisis has raised fears about stability in the nuclear-armed U.S. ally and concern about its ability to focus on battling growing Islamist militancy.

Bhutto's party said 1,500 activists had been detained to thwart the "long march" motorcade from Lahore to Islamabad.

Dozens of supporters turned out to protest at a barrier around 1 km (half a mile) from where Bhutto is being held, and police quickly detained most of them. A car was set alight nearby, but there was no major violence in Lahore.

Unidentified gunmen opened fire on two police stations in Karachi while Bhutto's supporters were protesting against her detention but no one was hurt. In Peshawar, police used teargas and batons to disperse protesters.

Pakistani shares ended slightly down in thin trade as nervous investors waited on the sidelines, dealers said.

"CONTAMINATED"

Bhutto said Musharraf appeared "out of his depth" and had "lost all credibility". "I will not serve as prime minister as long as Musharraf is president," she said.

"Negotiations between us have broken down over the massive use of police force ... There's no question now of getting this back on track because anyone who is associated with General Musharraf gets contaminated."

A spokesman for Musharraf, who took power in a 1999 coup and whom the U.S. has backed as a valuable ally in the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban, declined to comment.

The general has seen his popularity slide since he tried to sack the chief justice in March, sparking protests by outraged lawyers who also took their campaign on the road with processions to Lahore and other towns across the country.

Bhutto was dogged by accusations of corruption during her two terms as prime minister but her party is Pakistan's biggest and has the capacity to mobilize huge crowds.

PRESSURE

Musharraf has come under growing pressure from Western allies to set Pakistan back on a path to democracy. He has declined to say when the constitution would be restored and said the emergency would ensure a fair vote.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and President George W. Bush both urged Musharraf on Monday to lift the emergency.

The Commonwealth gave him until November 22 to end emergency rule and quit the army or face suspension, a call endorsed by British Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

Pakistan, expelled by the Commonwealth after Musharraf's coup but let back in 2004, rejected it. The Foreign Ministry said it reflected ignorance of realties and challenges facing the state.

Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, who last week warned against cutting aid to an "indispensable" security ally, is due in Pakistan later this week on a long-planned visit.

Musharraf has justified the emergency by saying a meddling judiciary was hampering the battle against militants. Diplomats say he wanted to stop the Supreme Court from ruling as invalid his October 6 election by loyalist legislators.

Musharraf has said he would step down as army chief and become a civilian president as soon as the Supreme Court, where new judges seen as friendly to the government have been appointed, ruled on challenges to his election.
By Simon Gardner
(Additional reporting by Kamran Haider in LAHORE, Imtiaz Shah in KARACHI and Kate Kelland in LONDON; Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by John Chalmers)
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Helpful Summary of Events in Pakistan in 2007:
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL1355008020071113?sp=true

Questions:
Why do you think the U.S. has hopes for Bhutto and Musharraf to share power?

Why is Pakistan's nuclear-power program important?

Why do some countries have a President and a Prime Minister?

Why do you think Benazir Bhutto was in SELF exile for so long?
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