Telegraph : Imran Khan on hunger strike in prison

Imran Khan on hunger strike in prison

By Richard Holt and Duncan Hooper | November 20, 2007

The Pakistani cricket captain turned politician Imran Khan has gone on hunger strike in prison to protest against the emergency rule imposed across the country.

His spokesman said he was prepared to go "as far as it takes" to get President Pervez Musharraf to lift the de facto martial law he imposed on Nov 3.

"He is on hunger strike until the judiciary is restored to the status it was at before the imposition of emergency rule," Seth Niazi told the BBC.

"Seeing that he is now locked up in jail, there is no other way of protesting - so this is the only way and this is what he has chosen to do," he added.

Mr Khan is facing terrorism charges after being arrested last week in a crackdown on rivals by Gen Musharraf.

Mr Khan went into hiding when he escaped from house arrest imposed shortly after emergency rule was declared.

But when he appeared at a student demonstration in Lahore last week he was detained by hardline students and handed over to police, the authorities said.

Pakistan's Supreme Court, reconstituted by Gen Musharraf following the introduction of emergency rule, has dismissed the main challenges to the president's right to rule.

Fears that the court might uphold complaints that the military chief could not also hold the position of head of state, prompted Gen Musharraf to replace many of the judges including chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, who remains under house arrest.

Once the court completely clears the result of the Oct 6 vote, Gen Musharraf has promised to step down as army chief and be sworn in as a civilian president as soon as possible.

Yesterday the president said he was asking the Election Commission to call a parliamentary election on January 8.

"Inshallah (God willing), the general elections in the country would be held on January 8," the official Associated Press of Pakistan news agency quoted Gen Musharraf as saying. But he gave no date for lifting the state of emergency, despite pressure over the weekend from the US.

John Negroponte, the US deputy secretary of state, said that he had "urged the government to lift the state of emergency and release all political detainees", reiterating that "emergency rule is not compatible with free, fair and credible elections".

However, Pakistani officials dismissed the significance of Mr Negroponte's visit, indicating that the White House had not brought to bear any threat of cutting its massive military aid.

Gen Musharraf has insisted that he would only lift emergency rule if the security situation improved, and strongly hinted that such a move was unlikely before parliamentary elections scheduled to be held by Jan 9.

He will visit Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for talks with King Abdullah, the president's first foreign trip since emergency rule was imposed.