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ISLAMABAD - Former premier Benazir Bhutto Wednesday urged Pakistanis to hold mass protests against President Pervez Musharraf's imposition of emergency rule, setting up a showdown with the military leader.
Bhutto's call, a departure from her previously measured stance, came as the head of Musharraf's party said the military ruler was likely to lift the controversial emergency in two to three weeks.
"I appeal to the people of Pakistan to come forward. This is the fight for the rule of law -- we are under attack," Bhutto told a news conference after holding talks with other opposition leaders in Islamabad.
The 54-year-old two-time premier added her voice to international calls for Musharraf to restore the constitution, hold elections by January and quit his role as chief of Pakistan's nuclear-armed military.
Bhutto had previously stopped short of throwing her support behind three days of angry anti-Musharraf protests, which have been crushed by security forces, amid speculation she was angling for a power-sharing deal.
But she has now vowed to hold a rally in Rawalpindi on Friday in spite of police threats of a crackdown and also called for a "long march" on November 13 from the eastern city of Lahore to the capital.
"How many people can they put behind bars? We will produce so many that they will not have enough jails," she said.
The police chief of the garrison city of Rawalpindi earlier said Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party had been told that it could not hold a planned rally there on Friday due to a ban on such gatherings.
"If they try to flout the ban, the law would take its course," Rawalpindi police chief Saud Aziz told AFP.
He said police had also denied permission for the rally because of a "very specific threat of suicide attack in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi."
Bhutto has been guarded by tight security since twin suicide bombings hit a rally last month in Karachi to mark her homecoming from eight years in exile. The attack killed 139 people and wounded more than 300.
As international condemnation mounted, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, the head of Musharraf's ruling Pakistan Muslim League party, hinted that an end to the emergency was near.
"I am sure it will end in two to three weeks as President Pervez Musharraf is aware of the consequences of long emergency rule," Hussain, who briefly served as prime minister in 2004, was quoted as saying by Dawn newspaper.
Nearly 200 pro-Musharraf MPs were set to meet later Wednesday to discuss when to hold elections, amid reports of divisions in the party about whether to delay the polls by up to a year.
A decision on a date was possible at the meeting, government sources said.
Bhutto had been in talks with Musharraf about power-sharing, an alliance also being pushed by the United States as a bulwark against Islamic extremism, although she has said that she has no plans to meet him in Islamabad.
Information Minister Mohammad Ali Durrani had earlier refused to rule out the possibility of a meeting.
Ex-chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, fired for refusing to endorse the emergency order and now under effective house arrest, urged Pakistanis on Tuesday to "rise up" to end the emergency.
The sacked judge said Musharraf had taken the step because he was scared of losing a Supreme Court case on the legality of his October 6 re-election as president.
Musharraf cited "interference" by the judiciary as one of the main factors that led to Saturday's imposition of the state of emergency, along with a wave of Islamic militant attacks.
Despite the emergency, hundreds of armed followers of a pro-Taliban cleric hoisted flags over government buildings early Wednesday after seizing most of the northwestern tourist district of Swat, witnesses and officials said.
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.
The United States and other allies have appealed to Musharraf to hold polls as scheduled, quit his role as army chief and restore the constitution.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke with Musharraf on Monday, but the president's spokesman said there were "nothing of any consequence" in the talks.
The Commonwealth called an extraordinary meeting of its ministerial action group on the situation. Pakistan was suspended from the group in October 1999 after the coup that brought Musharraf to power, and reinstated in May 2004. - AFP/ir
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