Members of the Pakistan Peoples party organised protests across the country on Tuesday, after PPP chief Benazir Bhutto was put under under house arrest for the second time in less than a week, to prevent her from leading a long march from Karachi to Islamabad against the emergency rule imposed by President Pervez Musharraf.
Top Lahore city police official Aftab Cheema delivered a seven-day detention order for Bhutto but PPP leaders refused to accept it.
Hundreds of PPP workers were also arrested in overnight swoops by police across Punjab province, especially at places where Bhutto had planned to address rallies during the long march.
Bhutto also asked Musharraf to quit as President, saying the days of dictatorship in Pakistan were over.
"We say Musharraf must leave. The time for dictatorship is over. It's time to bring a transfer to democracy," she said.
Bhutto, who returned to Pakistan from an eight-year self exile after Musharraf promulgated an ordinance that allowed withdrawal of graft case against her, has repeatedly called on the general to resign as head of the army, end emergency rule, reinstate the Constitution and free detained activists.
Meanwhile, the PPP had to start its long march without Bhutto. Shah Mahmoud Qureshi, the president of the Punjab unit of the PPP, led the march with 110 vehicles and thousands of followers.
Text: PTI
Images: (Top) Supporters of the Pakistan Peoples Party protest outside former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's house and angry protestors torch a car in Lahore.
Photographs: Aamir Qureshi/AFP/Getty Images
