Pakistani Opposition Leader Benazir Bhutto is holding a strategy meeting with senior members of her party to plan further protests against the state of emergency. Ms Bhutto was allowed to drive out of her residence a short time ago after the regime lifted a blockade.
It had placed the former prime minister under house arrest yesterday to stop her travelling to nearby Rawalpindi to lead a protest against the Government of President Pervez Musharraf.
The Government cited fears of an attack by suicide bombers as the reason for her detention.
Now released, Ms Bhutto plans to lead supporters on a march from the eastern city of Lahore to the capital, Islamabad. The march is to start on Tuesday and will cover a distance of about 275 kilometres.
She says the so-called "long march" will press General Musharraf to end the state of emergency, restore the constitution, quit as head of the army and allow elections to go ahead as planned by mid-January.
Pakistan's slide into political uncertainty has accelerated over the past week, with General Musharraf's imposition of emergency rule scaring foreign investors and spooking domestic markets.
Thousands of Musharraf opponents have also been arrested.
Rally to go on
Jamil Soomro, a media coordinator for Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party, says the motorcade will go ahead on November 13.
"If she's not there, the rally will still happen," he said.
Yesterday, Ms Bhutto shouted to supporters across a barbed-wire barricade.
"The Government has been paralysed," she said.
"If [General Musharraf] restores the constitution, takes off his uniform, gives up the office of the chief of army staff and announces an election by January 15, then it's ok."
Meanwhile, in several parts of the country, police used batons and teargas to break up small protests.
General Musharraf has said elections will be held by February 15, about a month later than they are due.
He also said he would quit as army chief and be sworn in as a civilian president after new judges appointed to the Supreme Court struck down challenges against his re-election.
Ms Bhutto has been holding power-sharing talks with General Musharraf for months and political analysts say cooperation between the pair - which the United States was earlier said to have been encouraging - is still possible.
Foreign pressure
The US has kept up pressure on General Musharraf, who took power in a bloodless coup in 1999, to bring an end the state of emergency he imposed a week ago.
It regards him as a close ally in the fight against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
White House National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe says democracy is the goal.
"Free and fair elections require a lifting of the state of emergency," he said.
"We therefore continue to call for an early end to that state of emergency and the release of political party members and peaceful protesters who have been detained."
After imposing emergency rule last Saturday and suspending the constitution, General Musharraf sacked most of the country's judges, and put senior officials - including former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry - under house arrest.
He also ordered a round-up of thousands of opposition figures, supporters and lawyers protesting against Mr Chaudhry's removal.
An Interior Ministry spokesman says 2,500 people have been detained since the emergency was declared, but Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party say 5,000 of its activists have been picked up over the past few days. © 2007 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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