Former Prime Minister and Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Chairperson Benazir Bhutto said on Friday that she had held talks with the government not for power but for restoration of true democracy in the country.
Talking through a loudspeaker outside her residence in capital Islamabad, Bhutto said that after Waziristan the extremists had reached the beautiful valley of Swat and were occupying village after village there.
She was talking about the serious security situation in northwestern Pakistan.
"Claims that suicide bombers have entered the twin cities (of Islamabad and Rawalpindi), if it is right then why they are not being arrested," she said.
The PPP leader said that she had come to the field and was ready to render any kind of sacrifice for democracy.
She said that her father Quaid-i-Awam Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had sacrificed his life for the cause of democracy and rights of the masses and that she would also follow the footsteps of her father and would never compromise on the people's rights.
She said that the policy of PPP was to provide facilities to all people of Pakistan, including education, health, electricity and gas.
She said that the government had paralyzed the routine activities due to her public rally as all the main roads leading to Rawalpindi had been blocked and a large number of PPP workers were being arrested.
Meanwhile, Federal Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmad said Friday that Bhutto had been taken into protective custody in view of the threat of terrorist attacks at her proposed public rally.
The minister was commenting on reports about Bhutto's house arrest while talking to the private Geo TV.
He said that Bhutto had been asked to remain confined to her residence in Islamabad and not to lead the public rally to the nearby city of Rawalpindi due to security reasons.
Rashid said that the decision had been taken on information that a few terrorists had entered the city to sabotage the PPP leader's scheduled rally there.
Supporters of Bhutto, chairperson of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), planned to hold a rally in Rawalpindi, a city some 30km south from Islamabad, against the state of emergency imposed last Saturday by President General Pervez Musharraf.
The Pakistani government has deployed some 6,000 police officers in Rawalpindi to prevent the rally.
Police Friday completely sealed off the venue for the protest in the garrison city adjacent to Islamabad.
Political gatherings have been banned under the emergency decree.
Saud Aziz, the Rawalpindi police chief, said that "under no circumstances" will the rally be allowed. He said: "The law will take its course against anyone who defies it."
PPP claimed that police had arrested over 5,000 of its supporters since Wednesday to head off the major rally.
Source: Xinhua
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