| |
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan riot police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at demonstrators and arrested dozens of people Friday as they tried to quell furious protests over the sacking of the nation's top judge.
Police also smashed equipment at a television station that was broadcasting the clashes near the Supreme Court in Islamabad, where Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry attended a hearing into misconduct charges.
The protests by a melee of lawyers, opposition party activists and Islamists capped a week of growing anger at military ruler President Pervez Musharraf, who ordered Chaudhry's suspension a week ago.
The United States, Musharraf's close ally in the "war on terror", said the judicial dispute was a "matter of deep concern" while rights groups and leading foreign newspapers have warned of a constitutional crisis in Pakistan.
"This is the beginning of the end of President Musharraf, his cronies and collaborators," Khwaja Asif, a senior leader of former premier Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League party said during the protest in the capital.
In Islamabad, police seized Qazi Hussain Ahmed, the president of Pakistan's main alliance of religious parties, when he tried to break through a security cordon after holding open-air Friday prayers, AFP reporters said.
Security forces erected barbed wire and concrete barricades to seal off the Supreme Court but hundreds of people including lawyers entered the court compound as Chaudhry arrived, a reporter said.
A crowd of around 1,000 people outside the court chanted "Down with Musharraf dog", "Go Musharraf go" and "Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest)" and waved black banners.
The Supreme Judicial Council, which is dealing with the accusations against Chaudhry, later ordered that there should be "no restrictions on the movement of Justice Chaudhry and his family members," his laywer Hamid Khan said.
Chaudhry, who denies the charges against him, has previously said that he is being detained at his house. He has also queried the constitutionality of the judicial council.
The panel's hearing was adjourned until Wednesday.
Musharraf himself apologised after police damaged equipment, roughed up staff and fired tear gas at the offices of private Geo television in Islamabad.
"I would like to apologise, such an incident should not have happened. The culprits must be identified and punished today," Musharraf told the channel in a rare live telephone interview.
The incident came a day after Geo said Pakistani regulators had ordered it to stop airing a flagship daily news programme.
Police meanwhile tear-gassed and baton-charged opposition workers who came out of a mosque near a key intersection in the eastern city of Lahore, as well as lawyers outside Lahore High Court, witnesses said.
In the northwestern city of Peshawar around 1,000 people rallied while some 300 lawyers marched in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, and another 700 in the southwestern city of Quetta, witnesses said.
The unrest subsided after about four hours. Police said at least 40 people were arrested in Islamabad and 50 in Lahore.
Security forces earlier rounded up nearly 100 lawyers and Islamists across the country in a bid to stifle the protests.
Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said the disturbance was "not widespread" but said opposition political forces were "trying to hijack and trying to create a law and order situation in the capital."
The opposition says Musharraf is trying to intimidate the judiciary before they hear key issues -- including his planned re-election by parliament and his dual role as president and army chief -- later this year.
Musharraf seized power in a bloodless army coup in 1999.
- AFP /ls
|
