Bhutto: Time for Musharraf to go

LAHORE, Pakistan (CNN) -- Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on Tuesday called on President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to immediately step down in the wake of a mass crackdown on the opposition this week.

Protesters in Karachi, meanwhile, reportedly opened fire on two police stations in protest as Bhutto remained under house arrest in Lahore, according to The Associated Press.

"It's time for him to leave," said Bhutto in a phone interview with CNN Tuesday morning, as Pakistani riot police arrested her supporters.

Bhutto's remarks were welcomed by another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif.

Speaking from Saudi Arabia, he called for the divided opposition to join forces against Musharraf, who declared a state of emergency and suspended democracy earlier this month.

"What I'm hearing on TV, her statements today that she has cut off all her links with Pervez Musharraf and wants him to resign from both offices, I think it is a positive development and a step toward achieving the objectives of the opposition," he told AP by telephone.

Bhutto's comments marked the first time she had called on Musharraf, who is both president and army chief, to completely give up power.

Bhutto said that while she had tried to work with Musharraf on a "roadmap to democracy," the arrests of thousands of people on Monday had convinced her that he must go.

"There's a total trust deficit," Bhutto said, confirming that she has been placed under house arrest for seven days. Watch what else emerged from her interview »

In her CNN interview, she also addressed media reports that Musharraf may have her deported.

"I'm told by Sky television that the regime is getting a C-130 military aircraft ready to take me away, presumably to my home in Karachi. But I have not been given any indication of whether I will be taken out of this house arrest or whether I will be taken to my own house or to any unknown destination," Bhutto said.

"So I'm totally in the dark at this moment on what this regime is planning to do with me."

Asked if she would leave the country if the government tried to force her out, Bhutto replied, "No, I won't go. Pakistan is my country.

"I belong in Pakistan and I cannot be banished. I would prefer to live in a Pakistani jail than to be forced to leave."

Musharraf struck back in an interview in the New York Times Tuesday, saying Bhutto had "no right" to ask him to step down.

He also questioned her popularity and her claim that she would win the elections, the article said.

"Let's start the elections and let's see whether she wins," Musharraf said, according to the newspaper.

While authorities barricaded the streets surrounding the house where she was staying, only a "handful" of officials and members of Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) had tried to breach the cordon, CNN's Karl Penhaul reported. Find out how Pakistan's capital city is struggling under emergency rule.

"These party officials show up to the barricades. They symbolically chant two or three slogans and then almost voluntarily they seem to be stepping into police vans to be taken off for some kind of arrest," Penhaul said.

"But certainly, there ... is no massing of party interests here and certainly, right now, there are many more police and, indeed, many more TV cameras than there are supporters of Benazir Bhutto."

Opposition groups had hoped to stage a five-day Lahore-to-Islamabad march and were counting on a groundswell of popular support to carry out the protest, but there appeared to be none.

Police and opposition officials reported the scattered burning of tires in Lahore to protest the barricades.

Meanwhile, several hundred police officers surrounded the house where Bhutto was staying and declared it a "subjail," sending jail staff to monitor the situation.

On Friday Bhutto was briefly confined to her villa compound in Islamabad in an effort to halt a massive opposition protest in Rawalpindi against Musharraf's November 3 declaration of emergency rule.

He has called it necessary to crack down on Islamic terrorists massing strength in volatile tribal regions along the Afghan border.

Pakistani authorities have shut down media outlets and jailed opposition leaders and lawyers who protested Musharraf's sacking of a number of Supreme Court justices, including Chief Justice Ikhtar Muhammed Chaudhry.

Opposition leaders contend Musharraf's emergency order was issued to avoid what they said was the top court's impending decision that would have nullified his recent election victory on grounds he was ineligible.

Musharraf has said the newly installed court judges "accept the election," and he repeated his vow to step down as military chief as soon as the court approved his third term.

On Sunday Musharraf announced that a parliamentary vote would take place before January 9, adding that it could take place with the state of emergency still in effect. In fact, he said, the emergency order "will ensure absolutely fair and transparent elections."

In the wake of the emergency order and crackdown, Bhutto has said talks on a power-sharing deal with Musharraf have been shelved. Fellow opposition leaders have criticized her for considering such a deal.

The United States and Britain, among other nations, have cautiously urged Musharraf to rescind the emergency decree.

Senior State Department officials told CNN Tuesday that Deputy Security of State John Negroponte was expected in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad for talks later this week with Musharraf.

Negroponte is expected to pressure Musharraf to end the emergency rule, shed his role as the country's military leader and stick to his calls for elections in early January, the officials said.

Speaking at Pakistan's National Defense University on Tuesday, U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson said Musharraf's recent actions represented a "serious set back" for Pakistan's democracy.

"The United States is urging your government not to throw away in weeks what it has taken years to achieve," she added.

"Our embassy and our consulates have tried to make sure that American business representatives know that Pakistan is a good place to do business, and I have always highlighted the enormous economic opportunities which your country offers."

Meanwhile, the Commonwealth -- a 53-nation alliance made up largely of former members of the British Empire -- declared that Musharraf's emergency decree was taken "outside the provisions of the Constitution."

It said Pakistan's membership could be suspended unless Musharraf stepped down as army chief and rescinded emergency measures including releasing those detained and lifting restrictions on the press and elections. E-mail to a friend

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