"It's a matter of time when he leaves and a change was in the offing," Jahangir said.

"The dictators don't step down and they have to be forced to leave. Public opinion is very much against him and now they have demonstrated that," Jahangir told PTI in an interview in Lahore.

She questioned India's maintaining of diplomatic ties with the military regime in Pakistan.

"If Indians feel that by supporting military dictatorship here they would become closer to the people of Pakistan, they would go further away. Military dictatorship is really unpopular here," she said.

To a question whether the militant groups, responsible for terrorist attacks in India, were operating from Pakistan, she said "there are all signs that they happen to be somewhere in that territory. Musharraf should get serious about it as rhetoric is not going to make them vanish."

Referring to the suspension of Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry by President Musharraf on March 9 on charges of misuse of authority and misconduct and later "mishandling" of the judiciary crisis, Jahangir said, "(already) the courts in Pakistan are subservient to the government, and despite that, they are not being tolerated by the government.

"That's why you see the kind of treatment currently meted out to the Chief Justice of Pakistan," she added.