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Pakistan protesters defy government ban
AFP - Sunday, March 15
MULTAN, Pakistan (AFP) - - More than 1,500 Pakistani activists rallied Saturday in defiance of a government ban to demand that sacked judges be reinstated as the presidency vowed to resolve the crisis through dialogue.
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Hugely unpopular President Asif Ali Zardari is locked in a standoff with main opposition leader and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to reinstate, as promised, judges sacked by ex-military ruler Pervez Musharraf in 2007.
Opposition activists and lawyers have called on hundreds of thousands of protesters to march on the capital Islamabad by Monday, but the authorities have blockaded activists, banned protests and detained hundreds.
The turmoil could not come at a worse time for the nuclear-armed Muslim nation, a central front in US President Barack Obama's fight against Islamist militancy and locked in a wave of Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked violence.
More than 1,500 lawyers and political workers walked about seven kilometres (four miles) through Multan, a city in the politically vital Punjab heartland, but dispersed just short of barricades erected by police at a city exit.
Party workers from Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N and black-suited lawyers waved flags and shouted "death to Zardari" during the peaceful protest as riot police walked along with prison vans without making arrests.
Police however stopped one of Pakistan's most respected lawyers, Ali Ahmed Kurd, the president of the Supreme Court bar association, from boarding a flight to the Punjab capital Lahore, where he intended to join the protests.
"They have denied us the boarding facility, saying it is closed," Kurd told reporters at the airport in his home city Quetta, where he was holed up after police stopped his convoy from leaving the province on Friday.
Pakistan's flagship private television channel Geo said its cable transmission had been blocked on Zardari's orders because of its coverage of the protests, but the government flatly denied any responsibility.
The crackdown is the most severe since a civilian government won elections last year to replace Musharraf. Top British and US diplomats have personally intervened to urge leaders to avoid violence and solve their problems.
Pakistani leaders were locked in talks overnight to find a compromise solution to head off the crisis with Zardari holding consultations with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and army chief of staff Ashfaq Kayani.
"It was agreed that there will be political response to all contentious issues according to the constitution and the Charter of Democracy," presidency spokesman Farhatullah Babar told AFP without detailing any concrete measures.
He said the issues would be discussed further by leaders in the Pakistan People's Party of Zardari's assassinated wife Benazir Bhutto "early next week".
Past proposals include setting up a constitutional court, as well as the Supreme Court, and ending governor's rule in Punjab, Sharif's heartland and where a court disqualified his brother as chief minister last month.
It remains highly doubtful whether any deal can be reached however.
Interior ministry chief Rehman Malik again appealed to citizens not to march on the capital, where more than 20 shipping containers have been parked ready to seal off the presidency, apartments for MPs and entry points to the city.
"I urge all Pakistanis not to join the long march as we have credible information that enemies of Pakistan could take advantage of the situation," Malik said in Islamabad, referring to a possible militant attack.
"The long march cannot be allowed on Constitution Avenue, but lawyers can hold their protest at any alternate venue outside Islamabad, so that life here is not disrupted," he added.
Musharraf removed independent-minded chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and some 60 other judges in 2007, fearing that he would be declared ineligible to contest a presidential election while in military uniform.
The move triggered a countrywide protest, spearheaded by lawyers, which ultimately forced Musharraf to quit in August 2008.
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