Ex Pakistan PM Benazir Bhutto has called on President Musharraf to resign the presidency in the face of the current situation going in Pakistan. She is still under house arrest, ringed by thousands of troops and security to prevent her from getting out and leading protest marches.

Bhutto was trapped in a padlocked house surrounded by thousands of riot police, trucks, tractors loaded with sand, and a row of metal barricades topped with barbed wire. She said it was now likely her Pakistan People’s Party would boycott the January elections and ruled out serving another term as prime minister under Musharraf.

“I simply won’t be able to believe anything he said to me,” she told reporters by telephone from the house in Lahore where she was held to prevent her leading a protest procession.

This probably kills any hope of an alliance between Bhutto and Musharraf going forward, which will hurt our relations I believe in the long run. There is a growing Islamic insurgency and if the Islamists took over, that would be a worst case scenario for not only the United States, but, the world. Pakistan has about 60 nuclear warheads and if the Islamists got a hold of them, that could be disastrous for everyone.

Her comments appeared to bury hopes of the political rivals forming a pro-U.S. alliance against rising Islamic extremism. They had held months of talks that paved the way for Bhutto’s return from exile last month to contest the parliamentary elections.

This situation is being closely watched all over the world, as Pakistan is on the front lines of the Islamic jihadists and the Taliban.

We can only hope and pray that this turns out better than it looks.