THE deposed Pakistani Prime Minister, Ms Benazir Bhutto, yesterday demanded that President Farooq Ahmed Leghari - who sacked her on Tuesday - step down.
The interim government, which was set up after Ms Bhutto's dismissal, pledged that elections would be held in February.
An angry and hurt Ms Bhutto told her first news conference since losing the premier's job that she would file an appeal with the Supreme Court against her dismissal. She said Mr Leghari should relinquish power at least until her appeal is decided.
In 1993, the Supreme Court reinstated Mr Nawaz Sharif as prime minister, after he was dismissed by the then president, Mr Ghulam Ishaq Khan.
Ms Bhutto proposed that Mr Wasim Sajjad, chairman of the Senate which remains unaffected by the presidential proclamation dissolving the National Assembly, step in to act as president pending her appeal.
"I intend to go to court because I think its my obligation to ask it whether there are two laws. I want to the court to say yes, there are two laws . .. one for prime minister from one province and one for prime minister from another province," she said.
Ms Bhutto, from southern Sindh province, was referring to a string of sackings of Sindhi leaders. Her father, then prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was overthrown by the military in 1977 and hanged two years later.
Another prime minister, Mr Mohammad Khan Junejo, a Sindhi, was sacked in 1988 by general Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq. Ms Bhutto herself was ousted from the office six years ago.
She reiterated her claim that the September 20th killing of her younger brother, Mir Murtaza Bhutto, in a shoot out between police and his guards in southern Karachi, was a conspiracy. "The bullet that killed my brother was also meant to eliminate me politically," she said.
The Bhutto family has commanded overwhelming support from Sindhi speaking rural parts of Sindh. But in major urban centres including provincial Karachi, the key political player has been the ethnic Mohajir Qaumi Movement (MQM). It represents the large settler community, which speaks Urdu and is made up of migrants from India.
The interim government yesterday lifted restrictions imposed on Ms Bhutto's movements but her husband, Mr Asif Ali Zardari, remains in "protective custody".
Meanwhile, Pakistan's 12 member caretaker cabinet, headed by Mr Malik Meraj Khalid, reassured the nation that it would stick to its promise of holding a general election on February 3rd.
After its first meeting, the information minister, Mr Irshad Ahmed Haqqani, told a news conference that holding "fair, free and transparent" elections was the "foremost priority".