Are Musharraf's Days Over?

In a series of interviews with international news agencies on Tuesday, November 13, former premier Benazir Bhutto asked Musharraf to resign, albeit not only as army chief.

"It is time for him to go. He must quit as president," she told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Bhutto, who was only allowed back to Pakistan from self-exile under a US-brokered power-sharing deal with Musharraf, ruled out serving as premier under him.

"Even if I wanted to work with him, I would not have the public support."

Embattled Musharraf last week declared emergency, suspended the constitution, sacked most supreme and high court judges, rounded up thousands of lawyers and opposition activists and curbed the media.

Bhutto has long called for the general to shed his military uniform, which he has kept since seizing power in the 1999 coup, and become a civilian president.

This is the first time the two-time former premier had ever asked him to step down as president as well.

The remarks came a few hours after government decided late on Monday, November 12, to place her under house arrest for a week in the eastern city of Lahore.

More