ISLAMABAD, Sept 23: Opposition leaders have described President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s remarks that the US had threatened to bomb Pakistan back to Stone Age as an attempt to prolong his rule.

Talking to Dawn here on Saturday, leaders of the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal said there was nothing new in what Gen Musharraf had disclosed in his interview in the US.

They said the president had tried to misuse his position and had failed to assess what would be the reaction to his statement in the country. They said Gen Musharraf had not expected the US president’s and the former deputy secretary of state’s immediate and outright denial of any such threat, thus he had failed in his designs.

MMA president Qazi Hussain Ahmad said Gen Musharraf had admitted that he had bowed to the US threats but he had failed to satisfy the nation who had been bypassed.

He said surrendering to the US dictates had done no good to Pakistan and the president’s disclosure of the threat at this stage had not raised the country’s prestige in the world.

Zafar Iqbal Jhagra, secretary-general of the ARD, claimed that President Gen Musharraf had taken with him a copy of the controversial Hudood bill to show to US President George W. Bush what he was doing to secularise the country.

However, he said the US was still not satisfied with what Pakistan was doing.

Mr Jhagra said that after admitting that he had surrendered to the US dictates, Gen Musharraf had no right to rule the country.

He called upon the president to step down to give way for setting up a national consensus government, which would hold fair, free and transparent elections.

PPP secretary-general Raja Parvaiz Ashraf said Gen Musharraf stood isolated after his statement in the US, which showed that he did not enjoy the support of the masses.