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ISLAMABAD : Former premier Benazir Bhutto on Wednesday urged Pakistanis to join mass protests against a state of emergency, setting up a tense showdown with military ruler President Pervez Musharraf.
Bhutto said she would hold a rally in Rawalpindi on Friday despite police threats of a crackdown, and called for a "long march" on November 13 from Lahore to the capital if Musharraf does not repeal emergency rule.
Police tear-gassed and baton-charged hundreds of Bhutto's supporters outside the parliament building in Islamabad shortly after she spoke, an AFP reporter witnessed. At least three were arrested.
"I appeal to the people of Pakistan to come forward. We are under attack," Bhutto told a news conference after holding talks with other opposition leaders in Islamabad.
The two-time premier said that key US ally Musharraf must restore the constitution, announce the date of parliamentary elections due in January and quit his role as chief of the powerful army by November 15.
Bhutto had previously stopped short of throwing her support behind three days of protests led by lawyers, which have been crushed by security forces, amid speculation she was angling for a power-sharing deal.
"God willing, there will be a flood of people. If I am arrested, people should continue the struggle," the 54-year-old added.
Nearly 1,000 people rallied peacefully in the capital earlier and another 200 protested in Peshawar.
She rejected a warning by the police chief in Rawalpindi that her Pakistan People's Party (PPP) would not be allowed to stage its rally there, due to a ban on such gatherings and because of a risk of suicide bombings.
"If they try to flout the ban, the law would take its course," the garrison city's police chief Saud Aziz told AFP.
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, killing 139 people.
Meanwhile, another former Pakistani prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, wants to build a united platform with other opposition parties against Musharraf's emergency rule, his brother said at a protest in London.
Shahbaz Sharif, the president of his exiled brother's Pakistan Muslim League-N party, confirmed the party was working with Bhutto's PPP.
International outrage against Pakistan has mounted, with the White House warning Pakistan its patience was not "never-ending" and that it expects him to return "soon" to the path of democracy.
Britain and France also urged Musharraf to hold polls on time.
But Pakistan rejected the "excessive" global criticism. It also brushed off a phone call from US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Musharraf on Monday, with his spokesman saying it involved "nothing of any consequence."
Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told MPs from the ruling Pakistan Muslim League party at a meeting also attended by Musharraf that the date for the vote would be decided by November 14.
Musharraf told legislators he wanted the "deviation from the election schedule to be kept as little as possible."
Pakistan's parliament unanimously approved the state of emergency in its first sitting since the weekend, state media said.
Earlier, Muslim League chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain told a newspaper that the emergency imposed on Saturday would end in "two to three weeks." There was no official confirmation.
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.
Analysts questioned whether she was playing a double game with her protest call.
"She has to pretend it is pressure that has forced Musharraf to back down and not that she has cut a deal with him," said Najam Sethi, editor of the respected Daily Times newspaper.
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 declared an emergency 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 his decision, along with a wave of Islamic militant attacks in the nuclear-armed nation.
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. - AFP/de
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