Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Violence mars Pakistani anti-government protest

LAHORE, Pakistan – Pakistan’s opposition leader defied house arrest on Sunday to lead anti-government protests that briefly turned violent before becoming a jubilant show of force against the country’s pro-Western president.

Hundreds of police surrounded Sharif’s residence in Lahore, carrying an order for his house arrest, party spokesman Pervaiz Rasheed said. But Sharif, who denounced the order as illegal, later left the house in a convoy of vehicles and headed into town.

“People have responded very overwhelmingly to the call of the hour, and I am thankful to the nation,” Sharif told Geo television by phone from his car. “This is a prelude to a revolution.”

The gathering in Lahore was the biggest yet in the buildup to plans for a mass sit-in in front of Parliament in the capital on Monday.

The government has refused permission for the indefinite sit-in, arguing that it would paralyze the government and present a target for terrorists. It has put the army on alert in case the unrest gets out of hand.

Though Sharif, his politician brother and scores of other opposition party members were initially ordered under house arrest, Sharif was allowed to leave his residence unchallenged.

Iftikhar said the government would not allow the protesters to march on Islamabad. Authorities already parked trucks across major roads on the edge of Lahore.

Some of the first demonstrators to pick their way past barricades to reach the courts on Sunday pelted riot police ringing the area with rocks. Police responded with tear gas, and beat several protesters with batons.

Later, the crowd swelled to many thousands. Many were black-suited lawyers campaigning for an independent judiciary, but most appeared to be Sharif supporters chanting “Here comes the lion!” in reference to his party symbol and “Go Zardari go!”

The political turmoil began last month when the Supreme Court disqualified the Sharif brothers from elected office, over convictions dating back to an earlier chapter in Pakistan’s turbulent political history.

On Saturday, after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke to both Zardari and Nawaz Sharif by telephone, the government announced it would appeal the Supreme Court ruling in the coming days. (AP)

BBC:

Pakistan opposition leader Nawaz Sharif has defied an apparent house arrest order to head for a protest in Lahore.

Describing the order - denied by the government - as “illegal” he left his Lahore home urging people to join him.

Police fired tear gas at the stone-throwing protesters who plan to march to Islamabad to demand judges sacked by the former government be reinstated.

But Mr Sharif’s car was allowed to drive through a police cordon as it approached the rally in central Lahore.

The Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) leader later set off in a convoy of vehicles to join the protest “long march” to Islamabad.

“It’s now a matter of the future of Pakistani nation and coming generations,” Mr Sharif told the Geo TV news channel by telephone from his bullet-proof car, reported Reuters news agency. “How can we abandon our mission halfway?”

‘Fascist tactics’

The BBC’s Barbara Plett says it is not clear if he will be able to reach Islamabad, given the authorities have blocked routes leading to the capital.

Ahead of the protest, the government has also arrested hundreds of opposition activists and banned rallies, saying they could trigger violence.

Our Islamabad correspondent says the campaign over the judges has become a power struggle between Mr Sharif and current President Asif Ali Zardari.

She says the unrest has alarmed the West, which wants Pakistan to focus on the battle against the Taleban on the Afghan border.

President Zardari - the widower of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto - promised to bring back the judges when he took office last year following his wife’s assassination.

Early on Sunday, riot police blocked access roads to Mr Sharif’s home and reportedly baton-charging his supporters.

Leaving his home later in the morning, Mr Sharif told a crowd: “The house arrest is illegal and immoral. All these decisions are unconstitutional,” reported AFP news agency.

Mr Sharif’s brother, Shahbaz, also a senior politician, was said to be in hiding in the garrison city of Rawalpindi near Islamabad at a property also surrounded by police.

Party spokesman Ahsan Iqbal told the BBC: “A government which claims to be a democratic government is coming with such heavy-handed fascist tactics.”

But interior ministry chief Rehman Malik told the BBC the police were outside Mr Sharif’s home for his own protection because of the threat from terrorists.

Long-running tensions

Mr Sharif was ousted as prime minister in 1999 during a coup by General Pervez Musharraf, who ruled until August 2008.

Tensions between Mr Zardari and Mr Sharif date back to the 1990s, but the two formed a brief partnership in government after parliamentary elections in February 2008.

Mr Sharif’s party later left the alliance, complaining of reluctance by Mr Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party to reinstate the judges sacked by the last government.

Relations have been further strained in recent weeks by a Supreme Court decision to ban Mr Sharif and his brother Shahbaz from elected office, and President Zardari’s decision to put their stronghold in Punjab province under direct rule from Islamabad.

Shahbaz Sharif was Punjab’s chief minister.

But on Saturday, in a move seen as a conciliatory gesture, the government agreed to seek a review of the Supreme Court ruling.

The political instability comes as Pakistan faces an economic crisis and a growing militant insurgency based in the north-west.