Fresh unrest as Pakistan mulls elections

FE Team | Published: November 07, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

ISLAMABAD, Nov 6 (Agencies): Stone-throwing lawyers again clashed with baton-wielding police as President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's government considered Tuesday when to hold elections amid growing international pressure to end emergency rule and restore democracy Unrest broke out in the central city of Multan, when hundreds of police blocked about 1,000 lawyers from leaving a district court complex to stage a street rally. Both sides pelted each other with stones and police swung batons to disperse the crowd.
An Associated Press reporter saw at least three lawyers were wounded, two bleeding from the head, and three police also were hurt by bricks flung by lawyers. At least three lawyers were arrested. In a separate clash, police stormed Multan's High Court and arrested at least six lawyers.
"This is the worst example of state
oppression. We wanted to stage a peaceful protest but police entered the High Court premises, brutalized peaceful lawyers and arrested them," said Habibullah Shakir, president of Multan's High Court Bar Association. "Lawyers will continue their struggle for the restoration of the constitution until their death."
The clashes marked the second day of unrest since Musharraf, who took power in a 1999 coup, declared the emergency on Saturday and suspended the current constitution. He ousted independent-minded judges, put a stranglehold on the media and granted sweeping powers to authorities to crush dissent.
Many saw it as a last-ditch effort to cling to power, although Musharraf said his primary aim was to help fight rising Islamic extremism. The moves came ahead of a Supreme Court ruling on whether his recent re-election as president was legal.
Opposition groups say about 3,500 people have been arrested so far; government officials put the figure at more than 2,500 people, mostly in the provinces of Punjab and Sindh. Most detainees are lawyers, although opposition party supporters and rights activists also have been arrested.
The authoritarian measures have drawn widespread international criticism, although so far only the Netherlands has punished Pakistan, freezing most of its development aid.
The US, Pakistan's chief foreign donor, says it is reviewing aid to Pakistan but appeared unlikely to cut assistance to a close ally in its war on terror. President Bush urged Musharraf to resign as army chief and hold parliamentary elections in January as originally planned.
US aid to Pakistan has totaled more than $10 billion since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in America. But Defense Secretary Robert Gates suggested that military assistance may not be affected so as not to disrupt efforts to fight al-Qaida and other militants.
On Tuesday, deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, who says he is under virtual house arrest at his official residence in the capital, addressed about two dozen lawyers inside the Islamabad Bar Association headquarters via telephone. About 200 protesting lawyers gathered outside.
Almost immediately after Chaudhry spoke, some mobile phone services in the city were cut. It was not clear if the events were related.
Musharraf has promised to restore democracy, but there did not appear to be a unified position among senior Pakistan government officials on when elections would be held.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said he would chair a Cabinet meeting later Tuesday to try to hammer out the date.
Musharraf told foreign ambassadors at his official residence Monday that he still planned to resign from the military.

Another report adds: US President George W. Bush urged Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on Monday to quickly lift a state of emergency, hold elections and quit his military post.
Bush, in his first public comment on the crisis, said he instructed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to call and convey that message to Musharraf, who had defied US pressure when he imposed emergency rule on Saturday.
"We expect there to be elections as soon as possible and that the president should remove his military uniform," Bush said after White House talks with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.
But softening his remarks, Bush also pointed out that Musharraf "has been a strong fighter against extremists and radicals ... After all they tried to kill him three or four times."
Bush, in response to a reporter's question, also refused to discuss the consequences should Musharraf fail to take his advice.