Benazir Bhutto, the former Pakistani Prime Minister, vowed yesterday to bring her supporters on to the streets to force President Musharraf to lift a state of emergency and restore democratic rule.

As police used batons and teargas to disperse thousands of protesting lawyers, the United States and Britain backed her call for General Musharraf to retire as army chief and hold elections by mid-January.

But the general, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999, told foreign ambassadors only that the elections would be “as close as possible” to schedule, while declining to set a date.

He denied widespread rumours that he had been arrested by his own Armed Forces, adding to the uncertainty permeating this nuclear-armed state since he imposed emergency rule on Saturday.

Bhutto was killed by bomb blast

The team from the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command have backed the claim that Benazir Bhutto was not shot

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• Pictures: death of Benazir Bhutto

• Pictures: Pakistan

BACKGROUND

• Pakistan in turmoil as ‘martial law’ imposed

• Bhutto escapes as bombers kill 126

• Timeline: Pakistan's period of turmoil

• The man out to oust a President

• Internal crisis gives Pakistan reason for hope

Related Links

• At last, a sign of sense from Musharraf

• Pakistan: heart of a global crisis

• Benazir Bhutto has a long list of enemies

Multimedia

• In depth coverage of Pakistan's crisis

With up to 1,800 opposition supporters arrested in three days, much now depends on Miss Bhutto, the head of the biggest opposition party, who returned from eight years’ exile last month. She told The Times that she would travel from Karachi to Islamabad, the capital, today to meet other political leaders and hold a massive public rally on Friday in the neighbouring city of Rawalpindi.

“If we do nothing, then Musharraf will think that the nation supports what has happened, and the nation does not support that,” Miss Bhutto said, after meeting leaders of her Pakistan People’s Party at her home in Karachi. “The people of this country want change. They want General Musharraf to announce the restoration of the Constitution, his retirement as Chief of Army Staff and the holding of elections on schedule.”

Nawaz Sharif, another former Prime Minister, who is in exile in Sau-di Arabia, called for people to take to the streets. It was time for “the whole country to rise against these dictatorial actions”, he told Channel 4 News.

Until Saturday, Miss Bhutto had been in talks with General Musharraf on a power-sharing deal, backed by the US and Britain as a way to broaden the Government’s mandate to combat Islamic extremism. She now appears to be on a collision course with the President, whose emergency measures have banned political rallies and taken private television channels off the air.

General Musharraf told the foreign ambassadors that he had declared the emergency because the courts and the media were interfering in his campaign against Islamist militants. The former commando is a key Western ally in the War on Terror and has deployed about 90,000 troops to fight al-Qaeda and Taleban militants near the border with Afghanistan.

He now risks losing the support of the US, which had repeatedly urged him not to declare a state of emergency and to hold parliamentary elections as planned by January 15.

Yesterday in a press conference with the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Mr Bush reiterated that “we expect there to be elections as soon as possible and that the President should remove his military uniform” – severing his links with the military.

But he added: “President Musharraf has been a strong fighter against extremists and radicals. We want to continue working with him.”

The US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, and the Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, have indicated that while the US is reviewing military aid to Pakistan, it does not want to undermine the counterterrorism effort.

Mr Bush yesterday would not discuss what action the US might take if General Musharraf ignores his plea to restore democracy in Pakistan. “It’s a hypothetical question,” he said. “I certainly hope he does take my advice.”

One diplomatic source in Washington suggested that the Bush Administration was buying time by promising a review, while hoping that martial law would be a short-term measure.

Pentagon sources pointed out yesterday that half of all the logistical support for the war in Afghanistan flows through Pakistan. About $80 million (£38 million) a month goes to compensate Pakistani counterterrorism costs.

But Joe Biden, the Democratic chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, has suggested that those hoping that martial law in Pakistan would be short-term are “kidding themselves”. He said: “This Administration has a Musharraf policy, not a Pakistan policy. It’s tied to Musharraf and it’s hands are pretty well tied right now.”

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, said that Britain was not planning to cut off aid. The Government has set aside £236 million for the three years up to next year. However, Mr Miliband said: “It is very strongly in the interests of the stability of Pakistan that democracy and the rule of law are the order of the day.”

Pakistani officials have sent mixed messages on the elections. Shaukat Aziz, the Prime Minister, said on Sunday that they could be delayed for up to a year, then announced yesterday that they would be held on schedule. Malik Abdul Qayyum, the Attorney-General, also said yesterday that the polls would be before January 15.

Yesterday police used batons and teargas to crush protests by thousands of lawyers in several big cities – the first public displays of opposition to the state of emergency.

The biggest protest was in the eastern city of Lahore, where police fired teargas at about 2,000 lawyers outside the High Court and bundled away about 200, some with blood pouring from head wounds. “Go, Musharraf, go!” and “The dictator is unacceptable!”, the lawyers chanted, throwing stones at police and beating them with tree branches.

In Karachi police and soldiers charged lawyers with batons outside the High Court, then sealed the building and detained about 100 people.

“If something unlawful happens, we cannot stay calm - we are ready to make a sacrifice,” Khawaja Mansoor, a Supreme Court advocate, said. In Islamabad police and paramilitary troops erected barbed-wire barricades to seal off the Supreme Court.

Rana Bhagwandas, a Supreme Court judge who refused to back the emergency, said that he had been locked inside his official residence and other judges were being pressed to support the Government.

Damage to aid

— The European Commission donates $72 million (£35 million) to Pakistan through its annual aid programme, now under discussion

— The money is given on the condition that it is used for the promotion of human rights, education and for supporting non-governmental organisations

— The Netherlands has suspended all aid whose spending is overseen by the Pakistani Government. Donations of $22 million, planned for the remainder of the year, and $58 million, scheduled for next year, are on hold

— Between 2005 and 2008, Britain has pledged $491 million in aid, which, the Government has assured Pakistan, is not threatened. Britain has promised to double that aid in the three years to 2011

— The US has refused to say whether its aid package of $1.8 billion a year will continue. Most of the aid is for military purposes

Sources: United Nations OCHA; agencies

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