Pakistan:Pakistan's opposition is inching closer to forging a unified front against President Pervez Musharraf's emergency rule as the crisis claimed its first fatalities.
An adult and two boys, aged 11 and 12, were killed in Karachi when an unidentified gunman opened "indiscriminate fire" yesterday on a protest led by supporters of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, police said.
Ms Bhutto, under house arrest in Lahore, said she was willing to form a national unity government with other opposition parties if Gen Musharraf left power.
"We need to see whether we can come up with an interim government of national consensus to whom power can be handed," she told the Associated Press.
Rival opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, speaking from exile in Saudi Arabia, said he agreed. However neither specified how they would unseat Gen Musharraf, whose grip on power has tightened since he imposed emergency rule on November 3rd.
Yesterday he appointed senate chairman Mohammedmian Soomro as prime minister of a caretaker government until general elections due by January 9th.
The appointment of the close ally fuelled suspicion that polls would be neither free nor fair. Mr Sharif's party called it "part of a scheme to perpetuate his rule".
John Negroponte, the US deputy secretary of state, is due in Islamabad today to urge Gen Musharraf to end the emergency soon. Dana Perino, a White House spokesman, said President George Bush "wants the state of emergency to be lifted".
Gen Musharraf has tried to counter western pressure by promising to resign his position as head of the army provided legal challenges to his re-election as a civilian president have been cleared. However he has also pressed ahead with a crackdown that has landed thousands of lawyers, opposition figures and rights activists in jail.
Three sisters of cricket star turned politician Imran Khan, who was arrested on Wednesday, were taken into custody yesterday at a protest.
Ms Bhutto received a visit from the US consul in Lahore, Brian Hunt, who was allowed to cross the barbed-wire police barricades ringing the home where she is detained. Ms Bhutto said Washington was worried about the crisis and Mr Hunt wanted to know if she could work with Gen Musharraf in future.
"I told him that it was very difficult to work with someone who, instead of taking us towards democracy, took us back towards military dictatorship," she said.
Police used tear gas and batons to break up a protest by Ms Bhutto's supporters in the north-western city of Peshawar.
Several senior party figures were arrested in Karachi, including Mian Raza Rabbani, leader of the opposition in the senate. - (Guardian service)