Bhutto talks on Pakistan strategy

Benazir Bhutto wants elections to be held on schedule

Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has begun talks with other opposition leaders to plan how to overturn the country's emergency rule.
However, some important parties are not in attendance. Ms Bhutto's party has refrained from street protests, but is planning a rally for Friday.

A top official from President Pervez Musharraf's party said emergency rule might only last two or three weeks.

But a BBC correspondent says the party has been giving conflicting signals.

Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League, told the Dawn newspaper: "I'm sure it will end in two to three weeks as President Pervez Musharraf is aware of the consequences of long emergency rule."

But there appears to be a split between those members of the party advocating that parliamentary elections should be held on schedule - by mid-January - and those who want them postponed, says the BBC's Barbara Plett in the capital, Islamabad.

Meanwhile some 2,000 lawyers and students have begun a protest in Islamabad.