RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Hello.
PHILIP REEVES: Hello.
MONTAGNE: Tell us more about Imran Khan.
REEVES: He's a very well-known voice in Pakistani politics, but he is not a very powerful party leader. His party is small, but he has drawn a great deal of his strength from his celebrity status as a cricketer. He is, of course, now retired, but he was a great cricketer and is known throughout the country for that. And he has now become a very loud voice in the chorus of voices that has been raised against General Musharraf, in particular, against emergency rule in Pakistan.
MONTAGNE: Phil, you were currently at Punjab University. It's one of the largest in Asia. Are students beginning to get involved in a protest movement against the imposition of the state of emergency?
REEVES: But the numbers weren't great. And there's a lot of reasons for that. People are frightened; they are frightened of getting arrested. They're also finding it difficult to protest because the police surrounded the gates of the university, and there are also police barricades on the road to the university. That said, so far, student numbers and student involvement has been remarkably limited, given the course of events in Pakistan in recent weeks.
MONTAGNE: And Benazir Bhutto, former prime minister, she has been detained, but she's also been quite vocal and making herself available for all kinds of interviews. How much of a sense is there that she's orchestrating the situation?
REEVES: When Benazir Bhutto first announced that she was going to lead what she called a long march, a motorcade, from Lahore to Islamabad, she knew that she was very likely going to be put under house arrest and that's what's happened. So this is choreographed. She's using her telephone to contact the media to put out the point that she needs to put out, which is her opposition now to General Musharraf. And she's also aware that Musharraf is very sensitive to publicity. Musharraf's made that very clear in his press conferences. He talks about aspersions and he complains quite often about the media being irresponsible, which is how he describes it. So she's definitely making the most of the situation as an effective political leader might.
MONTAGNE: Just finally and briefly, John Negroponte, the Bush administration's number two diplomat, is due in Pakistan at the end of the week. What can he possibly accomplish at this point?
REEVES: And Negroponte is sure to come to Pakistan and urge Musharraf to lift the state of emergency. And his other objective, I imagine, will be to try to repair the situation so that they can work again towards the possibility of a partnership between Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto, an alliance they were talking about building in which you have two supposed moderates - that's how Musharraf calls himself - allied against Islamic extremism, which is, of course, the biggest concern the U.S. has.
MONTAGNE: Phil, thanks very much.
REEVES: You're welcome.
MONTAGNE: NPR's Philip Reeves at Punjab University in Lahore, Pakistan. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
