In a significant shift in her stance, former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto on Tuesday asked General Pervez Musharraf to quit as President and ruled out serving under him in any future government after she was put under house arrest for the second time within a week.

“It’s time for him (Musharraf) to leave,” Bhutto, the leader of Opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) told BBC. “There are no circumstances in which I could see myself serving with President Musharraf.” “I have tried for more than a year. I did my best. I worked out a roadmap for democracy. But he went back on that and imposed martial law,” she said referring to the emergency imposed by Musharraf on November 3.
This was for the first time that Bhutto sought resignation of Musharraf from the post of President. Previously, her demands were limited to calling for an end to emergency rule and asking the General step down as army chief.
The two-time former prime minister had on Monday said that her party would hold no more talks with Musharraf on a possible power-sharing deal while the government said she would not be allowed to have a third term as premier.
General ignored ‘good advice’
She accused Musharraf of not listening to the “good advice” of the Commonwealth, which on Monday night gave him 10 days’ ultimatum to restore the Constitution or face suspension from the 53-nation body. “He is bent on sustaining and maintaining a dictatorship and Pakistan and dictatorship don’t go together,” she said.
In another interview to Britain’s Sky News, Bhutto said: “the time for dictatorship is over. It’s time to bring a transfer to democracy.”
Bhutto said Pakistan was “imploding” because Musharraf was “at war” with judiciary, had imposed censorship and alienated the media and popular opinion.
Calling for Musharraf’s resignation, Bhutto, 54, told the British TV channel over phone from Lahore, where she has been placed under house arrest to prevent her from leading an anti-emergency rally to Islamabad, that Musharraf was “out of his depth”.
“I think General Musharraf should leave. He has lost the confidence of the people of Pakistan,” she said.
The former prime minister, who was earlier on Friday put under house arrest in Islamabad to stop her from addressing a rally in the nearby garrison city of Rawalpindi, said more than 7,000 of her supporters had been arrested overnight.
“This is just terrible, that the police who should be used to find out where Osama bin Laden is hiding are focusing their attention on my supporters. There is a total revulsion of the naked force used against peaceful protesters.”