Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has called on Pakistanis to come out on the streets to press the government to end emergency, even as the authorities moved swiftly to thwart her party’s attempt to mobilise people for protests.

Bhutto, who flew into the capital from the southern city of Karachi on Tuesday to consult other opposition leaders on steps to oppose the emergency, said a public meeting scheduled for November 9 in the nearby garrison city of Rawalpindi for the election campaign would now be “a show of strength”.

“I appeal to the nation to join the protest and show their power. When people will come out, pressure will mount. The people will have to fight for the restoration of the constitution and democracy and to save the country,” she told reporters at her home here late on Tuesday.

Bhutto also had said that her Pakistan People’s Party would not attend a session of the National Assembly convened at 5 pm on Wednesday by President Pervez Musharraf and would instead stage a protest outside Parliament along with other opposition parliamentarians.

In an order issued on Tuesday, the government of Punjab province has banned the holding of a public meeting by the PPP in Rawalpindi on November 9.

Defying the ban

An official spokesman said the holding of large public meetings was generally inadvisable due to the possibility of bomb attacks. Political parties should refrain from holding public meetings and rallies and any violation of the ban would be dealt “with the full force of law”, he said.

Undeterred by the government’s ban on public meetings under the emergency rule, former Premier Benazir Bhutto-led Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on Wednesday vowed to go ahead with a planned party rally in the nearby garrison city of Rawalpindi on Friday.

Party spokesman Nazir Dhoki saying the meeting was called before the emergency was declared and would go ahead as scheduled.

“Inshallah, Mohtarma (Bhutto) will go to the rally and so will PPP workers. We will not be intimidated and nothing will stop us,” Dhoki told PTI. “We will hold the rally whether any one likes it or not.”

The two-time former premier returned to Pakistan from eight years in self-exile on October 18.

She survived a deadly suicide attack hours after her homecoming that killed nearly 140 people.