Bhutto warns against emergency rule

KARACHI, Pakistan, Nov. 1 (UPI) -- Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has warned President Pervez Musharraf’s government against any kind of emergency rule, it was reported Thursday.

Bhutto, who recently returned to her country after eight years of self-imposed exile, said her party, which as been holding power sharing talks with the Musharaff government, would not support an emergency declaration that would reverse the process of transition to democracy, Dawn newspaper reported.

Bhutto was to have visited Dubai to meet her family but that visit has been postponed, the newspaper reported.

The Pakistan supreme court is expected to rule this week on the constitutionality of the re-election last month of Musharraf by the national and provincial assemblies. Some reports say Musharraf might impose emergency rule if there is an adverse ruling.

“If emergency is imposed people will come out and resist it,” Bhutto told a news conference in Karachi, where bomb blasts killed about 140 people during Bhutto’s Oct. 18 homecoming.

Referring to the rising Islamic terrorism in Pakistan’s tribal areas, and other problems elsewhere, Bhutto said they were the direct result of the current military rule, the report said.