Pakistanis protest Sharif ban

pakistan: Thousands of protesters marched across Pakistan on Thursday, torching pictures of President Asif Ali Zardari as a nervous government put paramilitaries on alert and detained 30 lawmakers.

Security forces sealed off the Punjab provincial assembly but thousands of people stormed the barricades for a sit-in outside the governor's residence in Lahore, punching their fists in the air, witnesses said.

It follows a Supreme Court ruling Wednesday which barred opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, a former prime minister, from running for office. The protesters torched two large hoardings showing Punjab Governor Salman Taseer and beat pictures of Zardari with sticks and shoes before setting them ablaze. Many shops across the country have closed and the government, alarmed about the mobs' reaction to the court ruling, has deployed riot police. Lahore, Thursday, AFP