Nawaz Sharif defies house arrest
Pakistan’s main opposition leader Nawaz Sharif defied house arrest
Sunday and declared he was leading a mass protest on the capital, as
riot police clashed with stone-throwing mobs.
The former premier, now the most popular political leader in the
country, led about 10,000 supporters in a banned protest in Lahore but
scrapped plans to address the crowd, diverting his convoy towards
Islamabad as darkness fell.
Sharif, locked in a standoff with President Asif Ali Zardari since
the Supreme Court on February 25 barred him from running for office, is
demanding the government reinstate judges deposed by ex-military ruler
Pervez Musharraf.
“Our destiny is Islamabad. We have left for Islamabad,” Sharif told
flagship private television channel Geo in a telephone interview,
apparently from inside his bullet-proof vehicle, still crawling through
Lahore.
“The response from the people is amazing. It is a golden moment in
Pakistan’s history.
It is a prelude to a revolution,” he said, vowing to “rescue Pakistan
from those who have taken it hostage”.
The authorities have sealed off the exits from Lahore with giant
shipping containers, which Sharif supporters were trying to remove with
the help of cranes, but it was not immediately clear whether he would be
able to leave. Soldiers armed with guns have shut off the main entry
into Islamabad from the garrison city of Rawalpindi, an AFP
correspondent said.
In the most violent scenes since the crisis began, riot police
wearing body armour baton-charged protesters and fired tear gas.
Witnesses said more than a dozen people were wounded.
“The main GPO Square looked like a battleground. I saw at least two
ambulances ferrying casualties to the hospital,” said resident Hanif
Goraya, as Sharif supporters brought the city centre to a standstill.
“Police fired scores of shells, inside and outside the Lahore High
Court building. A shell hit my left thigh, I received stitches.
The injured include lawyers, political workers and some police
officials,” he said.
Sharif’s SUV inched down The Mall in a convoy of security vans,
private guards and supporters perched in vehicles and streaming behind
on foot.
“We tried our best to stop the crowd but they did not stop,” Lahore
city police chief Habib-ur Rehman told AFP.
Nasir Zaidi, an intelligence official in Lahore, estimated that
around 10,000 people were demonstrating in the city — 3,000 outside the
high court and the rest thronging behind Sharif, heading towards the
court.
*****------
*Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, also known Nawaz Sharif was born on
December 25, 1949 in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan)
*He was twice elected as Prime Minister of Pakistan, serving two
non-consecutive terms, the first from November 1, 1990 to July 18, 1993
and the second from February 17, 1997 to October 12, 1999.
*His party is the Pakistan Muslim League (N) (Nawaz group).
****-------
Lahore, Sunday, AFP |
