Karachi: Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan late Saturday following a decision by the government to impose a state of emergency and decried the move as tantamount to dictatorship.
“This is martial law and not Emergency,” she told Dawn News. “The President has declared Emergency to avoid averse ruling from the Supreme Court. We want the martial law to end and constitution to be revived,” she said.
“A nation cannot develop if the rule of law doesn't prevail. This is a contravention of the President’s promise. 'Unless General Musharraf reverses the course, it will be very difficult to have fair elections,'' she said.
Bhutto, considered by many supporters as key to a possible return to democratic rule, flew from United Arab Emirates, where she was visiting family, two weeks after she was targeted by assassins upon her return from eight years in exile.
More than 140 people were killed when suicide bombers attacked her homecoming procession.
Bhutto said she agreed with Musharraf that their nation—torn by increasing political turmoil and violence at the hands of Islamic insurgents—was in grave danger of anarchy. But she said dictatorship was not the answer.
''I agree with him that we are facing a political crisis, but believe the problem is dictatorship, I don't believe the solution is dictatorship. We had dictatorship, the situation has got worse,'' she said.
''My fear is that the forces of extremism want a two-year period in which they can expand their influence, drive NATO out of Afghanistan, and control Pakistan's destiny,'' she said. ''If they get this two-year period, the whole world will be facing a very dangerous situation.''
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She said extremists hoped to interrupt the upcoming elections in Pakistan, as they fear democracy.
''This is why the militants and the extremists targeted my homecoming ride,'' she said of the car bombs that terrorized her homecoming procession. ''The extremists fear democracy, they feel the power of the people.''
Bhutto warned that dictatorship leads to militancy.''The militants need the dictatorship; they feed off each other,'' she said.
After Bhutto disembarked from her airplane at the Karachi airport late Saturday, she left in a white car under police escort. Supporters of her Pakistan People's Party who had gathered at the airport shouted slogans of support.
Paramilitary troops, meanwhile, were deploying in front of her house.
Police said they had readied security for Bhutto's arrival and the drive to her house.
''We have deployed more than 100 police guards at the airport to provide security to Ms Benazir Bhutto and to escort her safely to the Bilawal House,'' police officer Haseeb Afzal said.
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