Benazir Bhutto urged the international community not to believe President Pervez Musharraf's pledge to doff his uniform and restore democracy.
WASHINGTON: Former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto on Friday urged the international community not to believe President Pervez Musharraf's pledge to doff his uniform and restore democracy, saying the 'dictatorship' was fuelling extremism and the country was slowly being taken over by pro-Taliban forces.
Talking to ABC's 'Good Morning America' over phone after she was prevented from leaving her house to lead a rally in Rawalpindi against the imposition of emergency, Bhutto said "I appeal to the international community not to be taken in, for him to retire as army chief, for him to hold elections and to restore the constitution".
"How often can General Musharraf bring the entire country to a standstill to stop a single public meeting?" she posed.
Bhutto said her party workers spent 40 minutes just untangling barbed wires erected outside her house with their bare hands in an effort to get out.
"But once we got the barbed wire out of the way, we saw the cement blockade. We told the police that they should either give us an arrest warrant or allow us to proceed (to the protest rally)," Bhutto told the television network.
The Pakistan People's Party leader said the Musharraf regime, a staunch ally of the US in its 'war on terror', did not contain extremism but rather fuelled it.
"We believe that the dictatorship fuelled extremism. We believe it does not contain -- it does not contain extremism.
"And we're very worried that our country is slowly being taken over by pro-Taliban forces. We're worried about the creeping Talibanization. We're worried about our futures. And we don't want tyranny," she said.
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