[NYTr] The End of the Bush-Bhutto-Musharraf Cohabitation Strategem?

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

AFP - Nov 13, 2007
http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/071113193214.d61trvyy.html

Bhutto to Musharraf: it's time to quit

LAHORE, Pakistan (AFP) - Former premier Benazir Bhutto urged Pakistan's
Pervez Musharraf to quit as president Tuesday as she sought to form a
united front with other opposition leaders against the military ruler.

In her most direct challenge yet to Musharraf since he declared
emergency rule, Bhutto said he was a failed leader whose time was up
and vowed never to serve under him in government.

As international anger over the crisis mounted, the United States said
it was sending Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte to Pakistan
later this week to press Musharraf to end emergency rule and hold free
elections.

"First and foremost, the most important thing is for the country to
return to its democratic path," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino
said.

Holed up under house arrest with close aides in Lahore as more than
1,000 police guarded barbed wire barricades outside, Bhutto called on
the world to abandon a leader seen by many in the West as key to the
"war on terror".

"It is over with Musharraf," she told AFP in an interview from inside
the residence, where she was slapped with a seven-day detention order
to stop her leading a mass procession against emergency rule.

"General Musharraf must quit... I call on the international community
to stop backing him -- to stop backing the man whose dictatorship
threatens to engulf this nuclear-armed state in chaos."

Bhutto, who had been involved in Western-backed talks with Musharraf,
said his November 3 imposition of emergency rule wrecked hopes of a
power-sharing deal despite a promise of general elections by January 9.

"I would not serve as prime minister under a man who has repeatedly
broken his promises, who is a dictator," Bhutto said.

"Look what he is giving to the nation -- imposing an emergency,
suspending the constitution and cracking down on democratic forces. We
gave him a roadmap for a peaceful transition but he has flouted that."

As Bhutto spoke, around 100 cars carrying her supporters set off from
this eastern city -- defying an official ban -- to press demands for an
end to the emergency.

Authorities had banned the rally and put Bhutto under house arrest
citing security fears, as they did last Friday to prevent her leading a
protest in Rawalpindi.

Double rolls of barbed wire surrounded all fours sides of the house in
Lahore where she is staying. Wooden barricades, sandbags and heavy
containers added extra layers of security.

Police arrested Bhutto supporters who tried to push through. Many
shouted "Prime Minister Benazir" as they were shoved into prison vans.

>From inside the house she moved to forge a coalition of opposition
parties in an apparent bid to isolate Musharraf ahead of the elections.

She said she was ready for an alliance with another former prime
minister, Nawaz Sharif, spoke with former cricket star Imran Khan and
agreed with a key Islamist to launch a "joint struggle" against
Musharraf.

"I want to build an alliance, a single point agenda for the restoration
of democracy," she told reporters.

Sharif, still in exile in Saudi Arabia, welcomed her call for Musharraf
to quit as a "positive development."

Bhutto also spoke with the leader of Pakistan's main coalition of
radical Islamist parties and to the head of a small nationalist ethnic
Pashtun party, in the first signs she could unite the country's
fractious opposition.

The United States too called for talks among Pakistan's political
leaders, Perino saying "we'll have to encourage continued dialogue
between all of the parties there."

Meanwhile Pakistan's foreign ministry hit back at a Commonwealth
deadline giving Musharraf until November 22 to end the state of
emergency or have the country suspended from the 53-nation grouping.
Expressing its "deep disappointment and regret," it rejected the
deadline and "demands that are based on lack of realism and
understanding."

In a separate development, Musharraf moved to allay concerns about the
safety of the nation's nuclear weapons amid the political turmoil.

"They are under total custodial controls," Musharraf told Fox News
radio, citing security measures in place since 2000, according to a
transcript of the interview released in the United States.