Pakistan's Bhutto Placed Under Seven-Day House Arrest
By VOA News
12 November 2007
Pakistani police have placed opposition leader and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto under house arrest for the second time in less than a week to stop her from leading a mass rally against emergency rule.
Authorities in the northeastern city of Lahore, where Ms. Bhutto is currently staying, issued a seven-day detention order against her late Monday.
Ms. Bhutto was due to head a Lahore-to-Islamabad motorcade protest to pressure President Pervez Musharraf to restore the constitution and resign as army chief of staff.
But Lahore police chief Aftab Cheema said rallies and protests are banned under the state of emergency and that police received intelligence of a possible attack at the rally.
Foreign ministers of the Commonwealth of Britain and its former colonies meeting in London gave Pakistan 10 days, until November 22 to restore its constitution and lift the emergency rule or face suspension from the 53-member grouping.
Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon also said curbs on the press must be lifted and conditions created for holding free and fair elections.
The Associated Press late Monday quoted the Pakistani High Commission in London as saying Islamabad's decisions would not be made according to deadlines "imposed from the outside."
In Washington, the White House said President Bush wants emergency rule lifted in Pakistan to ensure free and fair elections. Spokeswoman Dana Perino added General Musharraf also must shed his army uniform because President Bush thinks the general cannot be both president and the chief of the army.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP.
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