'Emergency would be backward step'

New York, Aug 10: Benazir Bhutto, former prime minister of Pakistan and leader of its largest opposition party, said she was very relieved that rumors of an imminent state of emergency proved not to be true.

President Pervez Musharraf rejected calls to declare emergency powers and wants elections to take place in Pakistan, a spokesman said yesterday after widespread media reports that the beleaguered leader would opt for authoritarian rule.

''I was a very worried person,'' Bhutto told Reuters Television in New York. ''I thought the imposition of emergency would be a very retrograde step and take us further away from the goal of the democratization of Pakistan.'' ''I thought it would also lead to internal instability because the political parties and the legal community were bound to protest the imposition of emergency.'' ''I'm very relieved to find that those reports were speculative, untrue and that emergency is not being imposed.'' As a close US ally since the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, General Musharraf's political fortunes are closely watched in Washington, which wants him to clamp down on al Qaeda and Taliban militants in tribal areas near the Afghan border.

Musharraf plans to seek another term in office from the sitting assemblies in September or October while remaining in army uniform a move fiercely opposed by his rivals and liable to provoke constitutional challenges.

Talk Of Alliance

Bhutto, who has been in self-imposed exile for a decade as she faces a raft of corruption charges, met secretly with Musharraf in Abu Dhabi last month amid speculation they are seeking some kind of power-sharing deal.

Bhutto has said the accusations against her are politically motivated and has vowed to return home before the elections due later this year or in early 2008.

Fueling the talk of a deal with Musharraf, Karachi's high court on Tuesday ordered authorities to withdraw a request to Interpol to issue arrest warrants for Bhutto, her lawyer said.

Bhutto said her Pakistan People's Party was in talks aimed at promoting election reforms to guarantee a fair vote.

''Our talks are geared towards the restoration of democracy, so the imposition of emergency or a postponement of the elections would have had a negative impact on our discussions,'' she said.

''General Musharraf and I both understand that we have divergent views on the issue of his re-election from the present assemblies,'' Bhutto said, adding that her advisers believed such a move would be unconstitutional.

''Obviously the election commission of Pakistan has to announce the schedule for the presidential elections,'' she said. ''That's not happened yet. It's expected. But it will probably be disputed and end up being a legal matter.'' Bhutto said it was important to engage in negotiations.

''We feel that boxing the present regime into a corner may lead to a backlash and we want to help move the process towards free elections,'' she said.

Bhutto said Musharraf's aides had indicated he would implement some election reforms proposed by the opposition.

''I believe that if these proposals are implemented, the election will be fair,'' she said. ''Otherwise the worst-case scenario is that the perceptions are that they're not fair and that people again take to the streets.''

Reuters>