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Lahore: Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto yesterday called on President Pervez Musharraf to quit and said she would not serve as prime minister under him.
"It is time for him to go. He must quit as president," Bhutto, who has for months held power-sharing negotiations with Musharraf, saidin a telephone interview from her home in Lahore where she was placed under house arrest.
Bhutto's party said 1,500 activists had been detained to thwart the "long march" motorcade from Lahore to Islamabad.
Exiled Pakistan premier Nawaz Sharif welcomed Bhutto's demand and urged joint action against emergency rule.
Meanwhile, unidentified gunmen opened fire on two police stations in Karachi while Bhutto's supporters were protesting against her detention but no one was hurt.
Bhutto’s statement came as hundreds of her supporters started a march from Lahore to Islamabad to demand that the emergency rule be lifted.
Bhutto has long called for Musharraf to step down as army chief and become a civilian president but it was the first time she had called for him to quit as president altogether.
It was also the first time Bhutto, who has for months held power-sharing talks with Musharraf, ruled out being prime minister under him.
"I will not serve as prime minister as long as Musharraf is president," she said. "Even if I wanted to work with him, I would not have the public support."
"Negotiations between us have broken down over the massive use of police force against women and children. There's no question now of getting this back on track because anyone who is associated with General Musharraf gets contaminated," she said.
"Police are not just arresting people, they are breaking windows, breaking homes, humiliating the women, the mothers, the sisters, the wives," she said.
"The men whose wives have been mistreated, the women who have seen their spouses thrashed and beaten up in front of their eyes don't want us to have anything to do with General Musharraf."
Bhutto planned to lead the pro-democracy motorcade from Lahore to Islamabad on Tuesday, but about 4,000 police moved in overnight around the house, laying out coils of barbed wire, setting up barricades and blocking streets with trucks laden with sand.
A detention order was pasted on the gate. "Her residence is an official jail now," said a senior officer outside the Lahore home where she was staying.
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