Chief justice to be reinstated in attempt to defuse protests

Published on Sunday 15 March 2009 22:43

PAKISTAN'S opposition leader, Nawaz Sharif, defied house arrest yesterday as his angry supporters were embroiled in street clashes with police.

Hundreds of police officers surrounded Mr Sharif's home in Lahore, carrying out an order for his house arrest, party spokesman Pervaiz Rasheed said. However, Mr Sharif, who denounced the order as illegal, later left the house in a convoy of vehicles and headed into town. He went on to describe the unrest as "a prelude to a revolution".

Riot police had earlier fought running battles with stone-throwing protesters, turning the streets into a battle zone littered with rocks and clouded with tear gas and smoke. A mob smashed windows of buses parked along the route of Mr Sharif's convoy.

Meanwhile, an anti-government convoy was slowly wending its way toward Islamabad. The protesters were today due to reach the capital and stage a sit-in at the parliament, demanding a showdown with Pakistan's president, Asif Ali Zardari, over his failure to reinstate sacked judges.

The government has refused permission for the indefinite sit-in, arguing that it would paralyse the administration and present a target for terrorists. It has put the army on alert.

Asif Kirmani, Mr Sharif's spokesman, said supporters used cranes to remove shipping containers that authorities had placed across the road in an attempt to block the protesters from the city, and added that the opposition leader would drive all night to Rawalpindi, just south of the capital.

It is feared the power struggle between Mr Sharif and Mr Zardari could spill over into full-blown conflict, which would paralyse the one-year-old government and, alarmingly for the United States, distract the country from its fight against Taleban and al-Qaeda militants operating along the Afghan border.