Musharraf opponents arrested in Pakistan as top court prepares to resume hearings

International Herald Tribune

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court was set to resume hearings Monday on the legality of General Pervez Musharraf's bid to be re-elected president, amid a crackdown on opposition leaders for allegedly planning to foment unrest.

The decision by the court, which is considering a series of legal actions, is expected within days, with the vote by federal and provincial legislators scheduled for Oct. 6. Attorney General Malik Mohammed Qayyum has expressed confidence that Musharraf will prevail, saying the government has a very strong case.

Some parties have asked the nine-judge panel to declare Musharraf ineligible to run as long as he retains his powerful dual role as army chief - a post that he has offered to resign after he is voted in.

The opposition has also pledged to mount street protests, and anti-Musharraf lawyers said they would blockade the Election Commission to prevent the general from filing his nomination papers Thursday.

But the government threw a chill into the anti-Musharraf movement by arresting several of its senior leaders Saturday night. Others who were targeted in police sweeps in Islamabad went into hiding, calling the arrests a sign of desperation by the president.

"The government has ordered the arrests of opposition leaders because they were threatening a law-and-order problem in the capital," the deputy information minister, Senator Tariq Azim said, confirming the detention of "five or six" senior figures in the opposition coalition, the All Parties Democratic Movement.

"Nobody will be allowed to take the law into their own hands," Azim said.

Security officials said the Islamabad police had orders to take into preventive custody some 35 opposition leaders - many of them linked to Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister Musharraf overthrew in a 1999 coup, or to a coalition of Islamist parties opposed to the president's alliance with the United States.

"Musharraf has now become desperate to crush the opposition in order to unconstitutionally and illegally become president for another term," Ahsan Iqbal, spokesman for Sharif's party - a key member of the opposition alliance -said by mobile phone from hiding.

"We will challenge these detentions in court and also protest in the streets," Iqbal said. "The government cannot break our resolve to struggle for democracy through such fascist tactics."

The police served a warrant on Javed Hashmi, acting president of Sharif's party, the Pakistan Muslim League, at an apartment complex for lawmakers Saturday.

The warrant said he would be jailed for 30 days to stop him from making inflammatory speeches at protests where "miscreants" could "cause disruption and acts of sabotage and terrorism."

"They are ruling the country with the gun in hand," Hashmi told a reporter at his apartment, where four armed police stood guard outside. "They think that the uniform, not the people of Pakistan, are the source of power."

The crackdown forced Sharif's party to postpone a meeting of its senior leaders in Islamabad on Sunday that had been called to discuss plans for Sharif's return to Pakistan, Iqbal said.

The sweep mirrored tactics used to ensure no crowds turned out to welcome Sharif when he tried to return from exile two weeks ago. Hundreds of opposition activists were briefly jailed to prevent them reaching Islamabad's airport. Sharif was swiftly expelled to Saudi Arabia.

Musharraf's popularity and power have eroded since his attempt to fire the Supreme Court's chief justice earlier this year. His administration is also struggling to contain a surge in Islamic militancy.

Musharraf has called for moderate political forces to unite to defeat extremism and has held talks on a possible power-sharing deal with former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who has vowed to return home Oct. 18 after eight years of self-imposed exile.

Bhutto has also threatened to withdraw her lawmakers from Parliament if Musharraf does not compromise.