Reuters, Islamabad
Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto will defy President Pervez Musharraf and go ahead with a pro-democracy rally next week, an aide said on Saturday, as Washington called on Pakistan to end its state of emergency.
A defiant Bhutto, who was kept under house arrest in Islamabad on Friday to prevent her from leading a protest in the adjoining garrison town of Rawalpindi, plans to travel by motorcade from Lahore to the capital on Tuesday.
Police maintained a strong security presence at Bhutto’s Islamabad residence early on Saturday, complete with barbed wire and concrete barriers, despite saying she was no longer under house arrest, a Reuters witness said. [Read more]