Musharraf faces growing criticism

By Simon Cameron-Moore

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani opposition parties will discuss on Wednesday how to overturn emergency rule, hoping to capitalize on international disapproval over the detention of growing numbers of lawyers and political opponents.

Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, in her strongest comments since President Pervez Musharraf assumed emergency powers on Saturday, said the world must make Pakistan's military leader revoke his measures or tell him to quit.

"If he doesn't, then I believe that the international community must choose between the people of Pakistan and him," Bhutto said in an interview with Britain's Channel 4 News.

Bhutto, who arrived in the capital Islamabad on Tuesday, was due to meet leaders of smaller parties on Wednesday -- though several have been detained.

The United States and Britain were joined by the 27-nation European Union in urging Musharraf to release all political detainees, including members of the judiciary, relax media curbs, and seek reconciliation with political opponents.

The EU said Musharraf should stick to a pledge to step down as army chief this month and hold elections in January.

The Commonwealth, a 53-nation group of mainly former British colonies, called a special ministerial meeting in London next week to discus the state of emergency in Pakistan.

NUCLEAR WEAPONS

Washington has said it will review aid to Pakistan, which has reached nearly $10 billion since the Sept 11 attacks.

But it has yet to come up with a clear stance for dealing with a nuclear-armed country which is on the frontline in the battle against al Qaeda and the Taliban.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack has said officials would uphold U.S. laws conditioning military aid to Pakistan and were doing an inventory of aid programs and related laws.

But he said: "I don't think that anybody expects that the president or the government is going to take a step that might make the United States less safe or might diminish our capabilities to fight terror."

A White House spokeswoman said Bush had not telephoned Musharraf since he imposed emergency rule and described the general's act as "a mistake".

Critics of Musharraf's decision to declare emergency rule -- a move which thwarted U.S. hopes of a transition to civilian-led democracy through elections due in January -- say he may have made Pakistan more unstable.

Bhutto said militants had taken control of the lawless tribal areas bordering Afghanistan -- raising the possibility of the country fragmenting under the control of warlords.