AFP : Pakistan judge urges arrest of police chief

Pakistan judge urges arrest of police chief

October 1, 2007

ISLAMABAD (AFP) — Pakistan's outspoken chief justice called on authorities to arrest Islamabad's top policeman following a violent police crackdown on protests against President Pervez Musharraf.

Dozens of people were injured when police baton-charged and tear-gassed lawyers and journalists during a rally on Saturday against military ruler Musharraf's plan to be re-elected in a vote on October 6.

Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who has become a thorn in the government's side since Musharraf tried to sack him in March, held a special hearing on the clashes at the Supreme Court on Monday.

Islamabad inspector general Marwat Shah "should be suspended and arrested because he is responsible for all that happened on Saturday," Chaudhry said in court to government interior secretary Kamal Shah.

Other top officials in the city administration and police should also be suspended, Chaudhry added.

Video footage of the clashes -- dubbed the "Battle of Constitution Avenue" by Pakistani newspapers after the city centre location of the violence -- was also shown to the court.

The chief justice was expected to issue a formal written order later Monday after the completion of the hearing.

The clashes erupted outside the country's election commission and near the Supreme Court itself as the body approved Musharraf's candidature for another five-year term in power on Saturday.

The court had the previous day dismissed opposition petitions against Musharraf's eligibility, ruling that he could contest the vote while keeping his role as army chief.

Chaudhry was not on the nine-judge bench that heard the case.

Musharraf, a key US ally who seized power in a coup eight years ago, has said that he will quit his military role before November 15 if he wins the election.

He is expected to win the poll as it is by a ballot of the national and provincial assemblies, in which his allies have a majority.

But the president still faces a last-ditch Supreme Court challenge lodged by the opposition against the election commission's approval of his nomination papers.

Musharraf suspended Chaudhry in March on misconduct charges but he fought back with a mass protest campaign and was reinstated in July, subsequently handing down a string of troublesome rulings for the government.