Officials of Bhutto’s Party Go Into Hiding, Fearing Arrest

Officials of Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party went into hiding today, fearing arrest after her government’s dismissal, and authorities ordered airports to bar PPP legislators from leaving the country, sources said.

Bhutto, meanwhile, met with aides to discuss President Ghulam Ishaq Khan’s actions Monday in dismissing her 20-month-old government, dissolving the National Assembly and declaring a state of emergency.

Ishaq Khan said he fired the government because of its “corruption and nepotism” and its failure to control escalating ethnic violence.

International observers said the military is trying to regain control of Pakistan by having Bhutto dismissed.

Army contingents moved into the capital and took control of the Pakistan television headquarters, Radio Pakistan, the Information Ministry and several other government offices.

Bhutto said in a statement after today’s meeting that the president had made “old and hackneyed charges, which have only one object--to undermine the will of the people.

“The PPP is not afraid to face these charges. It is confident that if elections are held as promised, on schedule, it shall be vindicated in the court of the people,” she said.

Bhutto later left Islamabad for her family home in the southern port of Karachi.

“I feel great, as I have done a good job,” she told reporters. “The opposition parties have been brought into power through the back door as they had tried and failed to dislodge the PPP through all constitutional means.”

PPP sources said a number of the party’s leaders have gone into hiding, fearing arrest.

Security sources said authorities have issued to airport officials a list of prominent people, including PPP members of the National Assembly, whom they have barred from leaving the country. It was not known if Bhutto was also on the list.