AFP : Pakistani police smash protests amid global anger

Pakistani police smash protests amid global anger

November 5, 2007

ISLAMABAD (AFP) — Pakistani police used tear gas and batons to crush protests by lawyers against President Pervez Musharraf on Monday, despite a torrent of worldwide outrage at the imposition of a state of emergency.

US President George W. Bush urged Musharraf, a key ally in the fight against Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, to end the state of emergency, quit as army chief and "restore democracy as quickly as possible."

Musharraf vowed elections, planned for January, would be held "as close as possible to the schedule," boosting hopes for a transition to full democracy, but officials earlier said his plans to hang up his uniform were "in limbo."

In a sign of the uncertainty gripping the nuclear-armed Islamic republic, the government was forced to deny swirling rumours that Musharraf had been placed under house arrest by his own armed forces.

Dozens of lawyers were wounded and hundreds more arrested as protests erupted outside courtrooms in a number of cities on Monday, the first major show of public dissent since a clampdown across Pakistan on Saturday.

Officials said 1,500 people had been arrested across Pakistan since the weekend. "Police have detained potential troublemakers, law-breakers and those who defied a ban on rallies," interior ministry spokesman Javed Cheema said.

The biggest protest was in Lahore, where lawyers with bleeding head wounds were bundled into vans after police fired tear gas at around 1,000 protesters outside the high court, an AFP correspondent witnessed.

In Karachi, police and paramilitary soldiers sealed off the high court and charged at lawyers who were outside the building, detaining another 100, witnesses said.

Clashes were also reported in Rawalpindi, Multan and Peshawar.

"It has never happened in the history of Pakistan that such a huge number of lawyers have been arrested," said a former Karachi High Court judge, Rashid Razvi.

Musharraf, who seized power in a coup in 1999, said growing Islamic extremism and hostile judges forced him to impose emergency rule. He suspended the constitution, sacked the nation's top judge and brought in strict media curbs.

The Supreme Court had been due to rule imminently on the legality of Musharraf's win in an October 6 presidential election, and government jitters over the decision are widely thought to have precipitated the emergency.

With private television news channels still blacked out by the government, the rumour that the deputy army chief had placed Musharraf under house arrest spread fast earlier in the day, but was quickly quashed by the government.

Officials said Musharraf had been briefing foreign envoys when the rumours about his arrest started, in a meeting in which he pledged to hold elections at an unspecified time and blamed the crisis on the judiciary.

"Efforts are to stay as close as possible to the schedule of elections. There are legal implications," presidential spokesman Rashid Qureshi quoted Musharraf as telling the ambassadors.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz was more categorical, telling state media the elections would be on schedule.

Attorney general Malik Mohammad Qayyum told AFP that the national and provincial assemblies would be dissolved on November 15 and the polls held by mid-January.

Former premier Benazir Bhutto condemned the protest violence and urged Musharraf to stick to his election plan. "I want elections to be held on time," Bhutto said. "Elections should be completed by 16 January."

The chorus of international concern also grew louder.

A spokeswoman for UN chief Ban Ki-moon said that the secretary general was greatly concerned about recent developments in Pakistan

She added that he called on Pakistani rulers "to immediately release those detained, lift restrictions on the media and take early steps for a return to democratic rule."

Bush, speaking in Washington, said: "We expect there to be elections as soon as possible, and that the president should remove his military uniform."

A Pentagon spokesman said earlier that the United States had suspended annual defence talks with Pakistan because of the political situation. US aid to the country is also under review.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, whose country was the former colonial master on the Indian subcontinent, urged Musharraf to clarify his plans after what Miliband called the "setbacks" of the last two days.