ISLAMABAD: The break between Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and opposition leader Benazir
Bhutto appears to be complete with the military ruler indicating that she may not be allowed to become Prime Minister for a third time.
A defiant Musharraf also rejected the US demand to lift the emergency imposed by him that led to suspension of the Constitution, dismissal of Supreme Court judges and arrest of thousands of opposition workers, lawyers and human rights activists.
"Constitutionally today she (Bhutto) has been prime minister twice, what about the third time? She is not legally allowed, she is not constitutionally allowed. Why are we taking things for granted?" he said in a wide-ranging interview to 'The New York Times'.
Musharraf, 64, had earlier passed a law barring a prime minister serving more than two terms.
Bhutto's plan for her party to take a 'caravan' across Punjab province was 'a preposterous thing to do', Musharraf said, referring to the 'long march' of her Pakistan People's Party (PPP) from Lahore to Islamabad.
He questioned the 54-year-old Bhutto's popularity and, at one point, scanned an op-ed article she recently wrote for The New York Times that he had brought with him to the interview.
In reaction to her claim that she would sweep the election, Musharraf said, "Let's start the elections and let's see whether she wins."
Musharraf also said that Bhutto, who returned home last month from eight years in self-imposed exile after the General issued an ordinance to grant her amnesty in graft cases, would be difficult to work with.
Before Bhutto's return to Pakistan, she was engaged in possible power-sharing talks with Musharraf and both sides had announced that they were close to a deal.
Musharraf said she was under house arrest because she had accused Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi of plotting against her. Thus, Bhutto was grounded to prevent an incident that she could then blame on the government, he said.
Musharraf also complained about Bhutto's conduct since her return to Pakistan a month ago.
"You come here supposedly on a reconciliatory mode, and right before you land, you're on a confrontationist mode. I am afraid this is producing negative vibes, negative optics."
On Tuesday, Bhutto, who was placed under house arrest in Lahore to prevent her from leading a march against the emergency, urged Musharraf to quit as President and said she would never serve under him in any future government.
Asked when the emergency would end, Musharraf said, "I don't know, I don't know. We need to see the environment."
Musharraf, who came to power in a bloodless coup in 1999, also refused to say when he would step down as army chief and become a civilian President. "It will happen soon," he said.
He said nearly a dozen independent television news channels that had been closed under emergency would be allowed to re-open if they agreed to a government code of conduct.
Asked why human rights activist Asma Jehangir, who heads the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, was arrested when she attended a meeting at the Commission's headquarters on the day emergency was imposed on November 3, Musharraf replied, "because she was agitating and trying to disturb the peace."
He called Jehangir, one of Pakistan's first women lawyers, "quite an unbalanced character" and criticised her for being too ambitious in her agenda to achieve better rights for women.
