More than 1,500 Pakistani activists rallied yesterday in defiance of a government ban to demand that sacked judges be reinstated as the presidency vowed to resolve the crisis through dialogue.
Unpopular Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari is locked in a standoff with main opposition leader and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to reinstate, as promised, judges sacked by former military ruler Pervez Musharraf in 2007.
Opposition activists and lawyers have called on hundreds of thousands of protesters to march on the capital Islamabad by tomorrow, but the authorities have blockaded activists, banned protests and detained hundreds.
PHOTO: EPA
The turmoil could not come at a worse time for the nuclear-armed Muslim country, a central front in US President Barack Obama’s fight against Islamist militancy and locked in a wave of Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked violence.
More than 1,500 lawyers and political workers walked about 7km through Multan, a city in the politically vital Punjab heartland, but dispersed just short of barricades erected by police at a city exit.
Party workers from Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N and black-suited lawyers waved flags and shouted “death to Zardari” during the peaceful protest as riot police walked along with prison vans without making arrests.
Police however stopped one of Pakistan’s most respected lawyers, Ali Ahmed Kurd, the president of the Supreme Court bar association, from boarding a flight to the Punjab capital Lahore, where he intended to join the protests.
“They have denied us the boarding facility, saying it is closed,” Kurd told reporters at the airport in his home city Quetta, where he was holed up after police stopped his convoy from leaving the province on Friday.
Pakistan’s flagship private TV channel Geo said its cable transmission had been blocked on Zardari’s orders because of its coverage of the protests, but the government flatly denied any responsibility.
The crackdown is the most severe since a civilian government won elections last year and replaced Musharraf. Top British and US diplomats have personally intervened to urge leaders to avoid violence and solve their problems.
Pakistani leaders were locked in talks overnight to find a compromise solution to head off the crisis, with Zardari holding consultations with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and army chief of staff Ashfaq Kayani.
“It was agreed that there will be a political response to all contentious issues according to the Constitution and the Charter of Democracy,” presidency spokesman Farhatullah Babar said without detailing any concrete measures.
He said the issues would be discussed further by leaders in the Pakistan People’s Party of Zardari’s assassinated wife, Benazir Bhutto, “early next week.”
Past proposals include setting up a constitutional court, as well as the Supreme Court, and ending the governor’s rule in Punjab, Sharif’s heartland.
It remains highly doubtful whether any deal can be reached.
Interior ministry chief Rehman Malik again appealed to citizens not to march on the capital, where more than 20 shipping containers have been parked ready to seal off the presidency, apartments for members of parliament and entry points to the city.
“I urge all Pakistanis not to join the long march as we have credible information that enemies of Pakistan could take advantage of the situation,” Malik said in Islamabad, referring to a possible militant attack.
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