Islamabad: Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has called on Pakistanis to come out on the streets to press the government to end emergency even as the authorities moved swiftly to thwart attempts by her party to mobilise people for protests.

Bhutto, who flew into the capital from the southern city of Karachi yesterday to consult other opposition leaders on steps to oppose the emergency, said a public meeting scheduled for November 9 in the nearby garrison city of Rawalpindi for the election campaign would now be "a show of strength".

"I appeal to the nation to join the protest and show their power. When people will come out, pressure will mount. The people will have to fight for the restoration of the constitution and democracy and to save the country," she told reporters at her home here late last night.

Bhutto also said her Pakistan People's Party would not attend a session of the National Assembly convened at 5 pm today by President Pervez Musharraf and would instead stage a protest outside Parliament along with other opposition parliamentarians.

In a late night order, the government of Punjab province banned the holding of a public meeting by the PPP in Rawalpindi on November 9.

An official spokesman said the holding of large public meetings was generally inadvisable due to the possibility of bomb attacks. Political parties should refrain from holding public meetings and rallies and any violation of the ban would be dealt "with the full force of law", he said. 

Bhutto will also chair a meeting of the alliance for the restoration of democracy today to discuss ways to oppose the emergency and to press the government to hold the general election as scheduled by mid-January.

The two-time former premier returned to Pakistan from eight years in self-exile on October 18. She survived a deadly suicide attack hours after her homecoming that killed nearly 140 people.

Bhutto left Pakistan for Dubai days before Musharraf imposed emergency on November 3 but returned hours after the beleaguered military ruler suspended the Constitution and key fundamental rights.

Though Bhutto and Musharraf have been holding secret talks on a power-sharing arrangement, she has said a meeting with the general is not in her current schedule.

She has criticised the government for arresting and detaining hundreds of opposition activists, including sacked Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, and urged Musharraf to keep his promise to quit as army chief.

Source : PTI