DarkTimes - 24Hr Global News Blog

HYDERABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto took her election campaign into her heartland on Monday, telling thousands of cheering supporters that President Pervez Musharraf's allies would be defeated.

Two-time prime minister Bhutto, who returned to Pakistan from eight years of self-imposed exile in October, said a "dark era of dictatorship" was about to end.

"There is no place left for the Q League," Bhutto told the crowd of about 15,000 people, referring to the Pakistan Muslim League that backs Musharraf, at a rally on the outskirts of Hyderabad, in the southern province of Sindh.

Bhutto said her Pakistan's People's Party would emerge in first place from the January 8 general election, with the party of another opposition leader and two-time prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, coming second.

The election is a three-way race between Bhutto, Sharif and Musharraf's supporters. Analysts expect a hung parliament, with no side winning an outright majority.

Bhutto is the daughter of Pakistan's first popularly elected prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was executed by a military dictator in 1979.

Her main base of support is Sindh province, especially its rural areas where her land-owning family has its roots.

Musharraf stepped down as army chief last month and on Saturday he lifted a six-week state of emergency that he had used to purge the judiciary of judges seen as hostile to his October re-election by legislators while still army chief.

Bhutto referred to the rule of Musharraf and military rulers who preceded him as a "dark era of dictatorship, fundamentalism and anti-people forces".

"God willing, the sun of the power of the people will rise on January 8," she said, to shouts of "Long Live Bhutto".

Security was tight with hundreds of police on duty in Hyderabad city and at the rally ground next to a university.

Party security workers used metal detectors to check people entering the dusty ground bedecked with party flags.

Nearly 150 people were killed in a suicide bomb attack on Bhutto as she paraded through the southern city of Karachi hours after returning from exile on October 18.

"WE'RE NOT AFRAID"

The crowd appeared subdued on Monday and student Malook Zadi said some of her friends had not come because of security fears.

But that hadn't put her off: "We're not afraid of losing our lives. We will support Benazir Bhutto and the People's Party even if we have to die. We could die sitting at home," she said.

Bhutto said it was because of pressure from the people that the election was called, the emergency lifted and Musharraf stepped down as army chef.

"But another test remains which is the holding of free and fair elections," she said.

The opposition fear Musharraf's supporters in an interim government meant to oversee the vote can engineer its result. Bhutto appealed to all those involved with the election not to rig it.

Musharraf has seen his popularity slide since he suspended the country's independent-minded chief justice in March, sparking a campaign against him by lawyers and democracy activists.

Police in Islamabad fired teargas to disperse about 250 lawyers and activists on Monday as they tried to reach the house of the deposed chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry, where he has been detained since Musharraf imposed the emergency on November 3.

While political opposition to Musharraf snowballed, militants have unleashed a wave of bomb attacks on the police and security forces, the latest on Monday when 10 recruits were killed.

But for many Pakistanis, it's bread and butter issues that matter most.

"If nothing else, I hope that Bhutto will be able to control prices and provide jobs," said builder Mohammad Ashraf, 29.