The Hindu : International : Benazir firm on long march

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Nov 13, 2007
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International

Benazir firm on long march

Nirupama Subramanian

PPP leader rules out any more talks with Musharraf

ISLAMABAD: By Monday evening, policemen had taken up position and the barricades were in place outside the house where Benazir Bhutto is camping in Lahore, but the Pakistan People’s Party leader and her supporters vowed to go ahead with Tuesday’s planned 300-km “long march” to the capital aimed at putting pressure on President Pervez Musharraf to lift the Emergency.

Reporters on the spot said more than 200 policemen had ringed the home of a prominent PPP lawyer in the city’s posh Defence housing scheme where Ms. Bhutto is staying. By evening, they had brought steel barricades. Snipers were positioned along rooftops.

The deployment sparked rumours that Ms. Bhutto’s house arrest was imminent. While there was no word from either the Punjab provincial or federal governments about whether the march will be allowed to go ahead, Information Minister Mohammed Ali Durrani said on Sunday the government was worried about the security risks involved. “There are reports that wherever there is a moving crowd, there is danger of terrorist activity,” he said, adding that the country had “already faced a very sad situation in Karachi” where 140 persons were killed in a bomb attack on a rally last month to welcome Ms. Bhutto’s back to Pakistan.

“Nowadays we are being careful because of the security risks involved. It is easy for the ruling party to hold rallies, but even we are not doing it,” he said.

Late on Monday, the Punjab government made a statement that it had “corroborated” information from intelligence agencies that a suicide bomber had entered Lahore and would target Ms. Bhutto and other opposition leaders.

At a press conference, Ms. Bhutto brushed aside the security risk and said there was no choice but to go ahead with the march, as this was the only way to put pressure on President Pervez Musharraf to lift the emergency.

Continuing with the defiant posture she has struck against the regime in the last few days, Ms. Bhutto also said there would be no more talks with Gen. Musharraf because of his decision to impose emergency rule.

Change in policy

“We are saying no to any more talks. It is a change from my past policy. We cannot work with anyone who has suspended the constitution, imposed emergency rule, and oppressed the judiciary. That’s why we are holding the long march, ” Ms. Bhutto said.

Party leaders said there may be a repeat of the scenes outside Ms. Bhutto’s home in Islamabad when she attempted to leave for a party rally in Rawalpindi last Friday.

“They will try to do the same tactics as they did in Islamabad two days ago. But we will make every attempt to go on the streets. They will put up barricades, and we will break them,” said a party official.

Even as Ms. Bhutto ruled out further talks with President Musharraf, in the capital, the outspoken Minister of Railways Sheikh Rashid indicated that the ruling Pakistan Muslim League was more dead-set than before against any political arrangement with Ms. Bhutto.

At a press conference, he described Ms. Bhutto as the “most corrupt, sluggish, dishonest and extravagant politician,” and an “expert” of the forked tongue.

“On one hand, she calls President Musharraf in the morning and says in the afternoon that she is not talking to him,” Mr. Rashid said. Gen. Musharraf announced on Sunday that parliamentary elections would be held before January 9, possibly under emergency rules. Ms. Bhutto told reporters that “under the given circumstances, boycotting elections could be an option.”

Other opposition parties also indicated they were seriously considering a boycott. A statement from Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf said it had reached a decision along with Jamat-i-Islami not to participate in elections under an emergency. The statement added that PML (N) chief Nawaz Sharif also participated in the discussion on the telephone.

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