Pakistani Police Beat Bhutto Supporters

Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto put her supporters on a collision course with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf Wednesday, urging them to defy a clampdown on protests against the U.S.-backed strongman's emergency rule.

In an opening skirmish, police swung batons and fired tear gas at 400 supporters of Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party who were headed to parliament, where lawmakers moments earlier had rubber-stamped the emergency declaration. Police beat and arrested the few activists who broke through barricades topped with barbed-wire, including several women.

Naheed Khan, a close female aide to Bhutto, waded into the brief melee, whacked a policeman on the shoulder and screamed at him: "Who are you? How dare you take action against women?"

The demonstrators pulled back through the choking gas, chanting "Benazir! Benazir!" and "Down with the emergency!"

Thousands of people have been rounded up and put in jail or under house arrest since Musharraf suspended the constitution and assumed emergency powers Saturday. Despite past promises to restore democracy, he has ousted independent-minded judges, put a stranglehold on the media and granted sweeping powers to authorities to crush dissent.

Ahmad Raza Khan Qasuri, a senior member of Musharraf's legal team, warned the U.S. not to attempt to direct Pakistani politics.

"Do we ask for a checklist from the United States, 'Why did you go to Iraq? Why did you go to Afghanistan?'" he said at the Middle East Institute in Washington. "The United States, instead of dictation, they should give us friendly advice."

Asked about whether he expected the U.S. to cut back aid it provides Pakistan because of the state of emergency, Qasuri said: "I think the U.S. is more interested in the security of the region rather than the democratic values."

Three days of protests by lawyers _ fuming over his attacks on the judiciary _ have been quickly put down. However, violent clashes with Bhutto's party, Pakistan's biggest, could deepen the uncertainty engulfing a country already shaken by rising Islamic militancy.

Police in the southern city of Karachi said they were trying to arrest eight lawyers on treason charges for distributing anti-Musharraf leaflets. The charge can be punished with the death sentence.

With the encouragement of the United States, Musharraf had held negotiations with Bhutto widely expected to lead to a power-sharing arrangement after parliamentary elections originally slated for January.

Both have vowed to toughen Pakistan's line against Taliban and al-Qaida-linked militants who are spreading their influence in regions near the border with Afghanistan and beyond.

But with the elections schedule up in the air, Bhutto urged supporters to defy the crackdown by marching on Parliament and attending a mass rally in the nearby city of Rawalpindi on Friday.

The mayor of Rawalpindi, a garrison city just south of Islamabad, said police would be out in force to prevent anyone reaching the park where Bhutto hoped to address supporters Friday.

"We will ensure that they don't violate the ban on rallies, and if they do it, the government will take action according to the law," mayor Javed Akhlas told The Associated Press.

Akhlas said there was a "strong threat" of another suicide attack against Bhutto, who escaped a blast that killed more than 140 people in Karachi during a procession welcoming her home from exile on Oct. 18.

Another bomber blew himself up several hundred yards from Musharraf's office in Rawalpindi last week, killing seven.

Bhutto has put the talks on ice since Musharraf's resort to authoritarian measures. She said security forces arrested more than 400 members of her Pakistan People's Party on Wednesday alone.

However, she said negotiations could still resume if Musharraf yields to growing domestic and international pressure to end the emergency soon.

"If Gen. Musharraf wants to kick start the negotiations for a peaceful transition, then he must revive the constitution, retire as chief of army staff by Nov. 15 and hold the election as scheduled," Bhutto said.

She said her party would stage a "long march" from Lahore to Islamabad _ a distance of 200 miles _ next Tuesday unless Musharraf announces he will meets the conditions.

The United States and other foreign donors to Pakistan are pressing loudly for the elections to be held on time and the end of the emergency. They are also urging Musharraf to keep a promise to quit his powerful army post.

Pakistani ministers have suggested that the election could be postponed for up to a year. However, the president of the ruling party expressed optimism on Wednesday that they could be held as scheduled.

"God willing, it (the emergency) will end as soon as possible and elections will be absolutely on time," Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain said on state-run Pakistan Television.

Though it has called for a return to democratic rule, the Bush administration's public response has been fairly mild, out of concern of going too far in rebuking a close anti-war ally.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte was expected to tell Congress Wednesday that the crackdown has been a major disappointment to the U.S. But his remarks were not likely to include any announcements on changes to U.S. policy. Congress is currently reviewing the billions of dollars in aid Washington gives to Pakistan.

Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup, has sought to placate foreign critics, telephoning Sen. Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Wednesday.

"It is clear to me from our conversation that President Musharraf understands the consequences for his country and for relations with the United States if he does not return Pakistan to the path of democracy," said Biden.

Musharraf says he suspended the constitution because the courts were hampering his country's efforts against extremism _ for instance by ordering the release of suspects held without charge.

But opponents accuse him of mounting a last-ditch maneuver to stay in power.

Musharraf purged the Supreme Court just before it ruled on the legality of his contested re-election as president last month. The court has also pressed authorities to let Nawaz Sharif, the man he toppled in his 1999 coup, return from exile.

Sharif's party as well as Pakistan's main religious groups shunned a meeting Wednesday called by Bhutto to coordinate opposition to Musharraf.

In an interview with AP, Sharif ruled out teaming up with Bhutto unless she broke definitively with Musharraf. He also urged the West to abandon the general, saying he had outlived his utility against terrorism.

"One man is holding the entire nation hostage for his personal interests," Sharif said by phone from Saudi Arabia. He forecast civil unrest unless Musharraf gives ground.

Lawyers are particularly incensed by the ouster of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, an independent-minded judge whom Musharraf tried unsuccessfully to fire earlier this year.

Chaudhry is under house arrest in Islamabad but managed to use a cell phone Tuesday to urge lawyers to continue their agitation.

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Associated Press writers Munir Ahmad, Zarar Khan and Sadaqat Jan in Islamabad; Ashraf Khan in Karachi; and Foster Klug and Anne Flaherty in Washington contributed to this report.