Islamabad: Just a day before she was to lead a rally from Lahore to Islamabad, Benazir Bhutto has been served detention orders and is to be under house arrest in Lahore for a week.
Benazir had toughened her stand on Monday, and had ruled out further talks with President Pervez Musharraf on a power-sharing arrangement even as the government said she would not be allowed to run for a third term for the post of the prime minister.
The two-time former premier had vowed to press ahead with her 'long march' from Lahore to Islamabad on Tuesday in protest against the Emergency despite stern warnings from the government that the rally would be stopped.
"We are saying no to any more talks. It is a change from my past policy," Bhutto had told reporters in Lahore, the capital of Punjab province.
"We cannot work with anyone who has suspended the Constitution, imposed Emergency rule and oppressed the judiciary. That's why we are holding the long march," she had said.
The Punjab government has banned all public rallies, including the long march, and said it will strictly implement the order.
On Friday, Bhutto was detained in her home in Islamabad to prevent her from leading a rally in nearby Rawalpindi.
Meanwhile, in Islamabad, Railway Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, a close aide of Gen Musharraf, said there is no possibility of Bhutto being given a third prime ministerial term.
He also ruled out the possibility of Article 58(2b) of the Constitution -- which gives the president the power to dismiss the prime minister and to dissolve Parliament being abrogated as demanded by Bhutto.
"I can see anybody as prime minister, but not Benazir Bhutto," Ahmed told a press conference. Describing Bhutto as the 'most corrupt, dishonest, sluggish and extravagant' politician in Pakistan, Ahmed said 'every contact has ended' between the ruling PML-Q and Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party.
Benazir said that though Gen Musharraf has accepted the PPP's demand for holding the election in January as scheduled, he has not delivered on other pledges.
Stating that fair and transparent polls are not possible in a state of Emergency, she said, "It is very difficult for us to participate in the elections with our hands tied. It is difficult for us to participate in polls without a level playing field."
She also demanded the lifting of the Emergency and the reinstatement of deposed Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and all other judges who did not endorse the Provincial Constitutional Order (PCO).
"The decision to impose an emergency and not to quit his military uniform has led to a breakdown of talks between us and the Musharraf regime," Bhutto said.
Meanwhile, the international community is growing increasingly tough on Pakistan's continued state of Emergency.
Pakistan's membership to the Commonwealth can be suspended if measures are not taken by November 22 to restore institutions of Democracy.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also urged the Pakistani government to lift the emergency measures imposed earlier this month.
'I would hope that the Pakistani government would do more, including the lifting of emergency measures as well as release detained political leaders,'' Ban told reporters, after meeting Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Brasilia.
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