ISLAMABAD, May 27: Former prime minister and chairperson of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Benazir Bhutto has cautioned the West against supporting the military dictatorship in Pakistan which she said was strengthening the extremists in the country.

According to the PPP media cell, she said this on Thursday while addressing a gathering of intellectuals, elite and students at the Oxford. "Terrorists and dictators are the cause of war, bloodshed, inhumanity, chaos and disintegration," she said urging the international community to shun them.

She said the extremists could turn into the new "Frankenstein's monster that haunts us in the future". Ms Bhutto said inconsistency towards values of freedom and democracy, that ultimately can defeat terrorism, was a fundamental mistake and added "the international community must not repeat that mistake again".

She asked the international community not to coddle dictators to promote their own interests. She said it was naivete or myopia that led to disastrous courting of the Shah of Iran, Marcos of the Philippines and Zia of Pakistan.

The goal of British policy, therefore, must always be to simultaneously promote stability and to strengthen democratic values, she told the audience. She said instead of combating extremism, the "military government has promoted it through its electoral policies" and whatever measures had been taken against extremism have been only to ease international pressure.

Criticizing the increasing role of the military in national politics of Pakistan she said: "The Musharraf dictatorship has build up the security establishment as a state-within-a-state".

"There are two laws in Pakistan-one for the civilians and another for the military. There are also two separate educational opportunities, health opportunities, pension opportunities, investment opportunities, economic benefits, agricultural allotments, bank loans, permits for commercial plazas, plush low cost housing depending on whether one wears Mufti or Khaki".