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ISLAMABAD - Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was expected to set off for the eastern city of Lahore last night on the latest phase of a campaign to restore democracy.
Bhutto described Pakistan as a "pressure cooker" about to explode, while President General Pervez Musharraf was due to hold his first news conference since imposing emergency rule on November 3.
After invoking emergency powers a week ago, Musharraf has sacked most of the country's judges, putting senior ones under house arrest, and ordered police to round up the majority of the opposition leadership, and anyone else deemed troublesome.
He has also placed curbs on media, private news channels are off the air, and transmissions of BBC and CNN have been blocked, though newspapers are publishing freely.
The Government turned the screws on media tighter by telling three British journalists to get out. Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azim said the three from the Telegraph Group - Isambard Wilkinson, Colin Freeman and Damien McElroy - were ordered out of Pakistan for a story, which authorities found offensive.
"Pakistan under dictatorship is a pressure cooker," Bhutto said. "Without a place to vent, the passion of our people for liberty threatens to explode."
Police have used batons and teargas to disperse protesters in various parts of the country but there has been no major violence.
A party spokesman, Farahatullah Babar, said Bhutto's plans had yet to be completed but there was a great probability she would travel to Lahore, the city where the pulse of Pakistani politics beats strongest.
Bhutto plans to lead a "long march" - actually a mass motor procession - from Lahore to Islamabad, beginning tomorrow, to put more pressure on Musharraf to revoke emergency rule, restore the constitution and the sacked judges, quit as Army chief, hold elections in January and release thousands of detainees.
Bhutto, who had been holding power-sharing talks with Musharraf for months, was briefly placed under house arrest at the weekend. She was stopped from meeting the deposed chief justice who has been detained at his Islamabad home.
Musharraf briefed Army commanders, telling them the emergency had been a very difficult decision but necessary. But critics say Musharraf wanted to pre-empt a possible decision by the court to rule his presidential election victory invalid because he contested while Army chief.
Musharraf has said elections will be held by February 15, about a month later than they were due. He also said he would quit as Army chief and be sworn in as a civilian President once new judges struck down challenges to his re-election.
The United States has kept up pressure on Musharraf to get back to a democratic path. But US pressure is constrained as Musharraf is a close ally in the fight against al Qaeda and the Taleban.
US President George W. Bush said he was taking Musharraf at his word that elections would be held early next year. "We do share a common goal, and that is to eradicate al Qaeda," Bush told a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at his Texas ranch.
Jemima Khan, the former wife of Imran Khan, who heads a small opposition party in Pakistan, led a demonstration by hundreds of people in London calling for the restoration of democracy in Pakistan.
There were chaotic scenes at Whitehall near Prime Minister Gordon Brown's office, when Khan arrived at the demonstration. She spoke on behalf of her former husband.
Khan urged Britain's Government to put more pressure on Musharraf.
"I think this demonstration sends a message that we are standing behind the people of Pakistan. The message to the British Government is, 'Look at the crowds outside. People really care about this issue'."
"My friends are telling me normal people are being attacked" in Pakistan, she said.
- Reuters, AP
