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Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto has warned that Pakistan may be coming apart because of economic and social problems and said that it needs to learn from the breakup of Yugoslavia.
"Some 140 million people are unable to lead and fulfil meaningful lives if they are only fed on spin doctors and propaganda," the Online news agency quoted her as telling a Saudi Arabian daily.
"The country's needs are markets; people need laws, opportunities -- all that is missing. As far as I can see, Pakistan is today slowly falling apart.
"The imposition [of military rule] within Pakistan can have a very serious fallout, and I say that what happens in Pakistan in the next three years will determine what will happen in Pakistan in the next 15 years," she said.
"Nations disintegrate less due to external aggression and more due to internal implosion. The lessons of the Soviet Union and that of Yugoslavia are before us.
"If an Asian Yugoslavia is to be prevented then it is imperative that democracy be restored, elections be held which are fair and will return the Pakistan People's Party and myself to power."
Bhutto, who lives in exile in Dubai and London, said Pakistan's military rulers had no faith in democracy.
She said that until Pakistan set its house in order by adhering to the constitution, the social and economic crisis would deepen.
Bhutto said it would not be correct to compare Pakistan with India. "India operates in a different set of circumstances, it has a larger economy, and it has certain systems. In view of the inability of the Muslim world to subsidise Pakistan's poor economic condition, we need to take decisions that could keep us as a strong and viable state."
Bhutto said it was very difficult for ordinary people to live in Pakistan. "For me it has been more brutal. I have watched my father killed. I have watched two of my brothers killed. I have seen my husband incarcerated. I have seen my mother, who is sick and ailing with Alzheimer's disease, mistreated.
"I have fought on, because we believe that you must fight for what you believe is the right cause. I love my country. I am saying that give the people of Pakistan the right to choose their own destiny, stop this collision."
Indo-Asian News Service
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