Bhutto asks for Musharraf resignation

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 13 (UPI) -- Former Pakistan Premier Benazir Bhutto, prevented from leading a march, called for President Pervez Musharraf's resignation, Sky News reported Tuesday.

In her first such call for the general's resignation, Bhutto told Sky News, "It is a dictatorship in Pakistan and that's why we say President Musharraf must leave."

Bhutto, confined to her residence in Lahore from where she was to lead a 170-mile long march to Islamabad to protest Musharraf's Nov. 3 emergency decree, said, "The situation in the country can only be aggravated if he stays. It's a nuclear-armed country and the military is over-extended."

Bhutto, who heads the Pakistan People's Party, also claimed more than 7,000 of her supporters had been arrested overnight. In prior statements, Bhutto had urged Musharraf only to give up his title as military chief, end the emergency decree and release political detainees.

About 18,000 police officers were on duty in Lahore to stop the protest.

"Her residence is an official jail now," a senior police officer at the scene was quoted as saying. Police said she could be the target of a suicide assassination.

A witness told Pakistan's Dawn that police had cordoned off the area, put up barbed wires and blocked roads. Bhutto had been similarly detained last week, stopping her from addressing a rally in Rawalpindi.

The BBC reported the foreign ministers of Commonwealth nations meeting London decided to suspend Pakistan from the group if the emergency is not lifted within 10 days.