The New Nation - Internet Edition

BBC Online

Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto says she has ended negotiations with President Pervez Musharraf on a power-sharing agreement.

"We are saying no," to more talks, she told journalists in Lahore. "It is a change from my party's past policy."

The United States has been pushing for a power-sharing agreement to provide more support for Gen Musharraf in his fight against Islamist extremism. But Bhutto said the state of emergency made talks impossible. Bhutto also said she would go ahead with a rally on Tuesday from Lahore to the capital, Islamabad. Her comments come as Commonwealth foreign ministers are due to meet in London to debate a possible suspension of Pakistan's membership of the organisation.

The extraordinary session was called after President Musharraf imposed a state of emergency on 3 November.

On Sunday Gen Musharraf promised to hold elections in January but refused to say when he would lift emergency rule. The Commonwealth meeting is expected to add to the international pressure on Gen Musharraf. When Gen Musharraf seized power in 1999, Pakistan was suspended from the Commonwealth for five years. Pakistan's opposition called on Gen. Pervez Musharraf to lift a state of emergency, threatening Monday to boycott upcoming parliamentary elections unless citizens' rights were fully restored and he stepped down as army chief.

Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, one of the country's opposition leaders, prepared to launch a cross-country caravan to protest military rule. Police ramped up security for her, saying they had received intelligence that a suicide bomber was planning to attack her in the eastern city of Lahore. Benazir Bhutto on Monday urged Pakistanis of all shades to join a motorcade protest against President Pervez Musharraf's emergency rule and vowed it would go ahead even if police try to block her. Musharraf said Sunday he would stick to a January schedule for the election, but set no time limit on emergency rule, which has resulted in the arrests of thousands of his critics, a ban on rallies and the blacking out of independent TV networks.

The measures, he argued, were necessary to ensure "absolutely fair and transparent elections" and to step up the fight against Islamic militants threatening Pakistan.

Bhutto welcomed his Jan. 9 cutoff date for the vote but said Monday that free and fair elections were not "forseeable" under the emergency and with Musharraf still army chief.

"In the given circumstances, boycotting elections could be an option," she told reporters. "We will consult the other political parties."

Raja Zafarul Haq, chairman of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's party, demanded restoration of the constitution, which was suspended under the emergency, reinstatement of top judges purged by Musharraf and the release of detainees - as well as Sharif's return from exile.

"Under the current circumstances it is very difficult to expect there would be fair elections in the country," he told AP Television News. "Within the next week there will be meetings and we will finally decide whether to go for elections or agitation."

In Lahore, about 200 police were guarding the house where Bhutto was staying, with snipers on surrounding rooftops, ahead of her 185-mile protest caravan to Islamabad, due to begin Tuesday. The access road was blocked by steel barricades.

With an escort of dozens of police vehicles, she ventured out to offer prayers at the grave of Pakistan's national poet, Allama Iqbal, and declared to reporters that her caravan was part of her campaign "to save Pakistan."

"I know it is dangerous but what alternative is there when the country is in danger? We welcome the announcement of the election schedule but we think it is too little. People want free and fair elections," she said.