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Showdown looms in Rawalpindi tomorrow
Thu, Nov 08, 2007 The Straits Times
ISLAMABAD - A SHOWDOWN is looming between President Pervez Musharraf and pro-democracy protesters with the authorities threatening to crush a rally planned for tomorrow and opposition leader Benazir Bhutto urging followers to mobilise. Security forces have put down three days of lawyer-led protests against General Musharraf's imposition of de facto martial law on Saturday, but so far they have not had to face the massed supporters of Ms Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP), the country's biggest opposition party. Now that looks set to change. PPP supporters are planning a rally tomorrow in Rawalpindi and the authorities have vowed to come out against them in full force. Said Ms Bhutto yesterday: 'I request my brothers and sisters to reach Rawalpindi at all costs.' The former prime minister, who recently returned from eight years in exile, has not yet formally ruled out a power-sharing deal she is believed to have been working on with Gen Musharraf.

At the same time, Rawalpindi mayor Javed Akhlas said police would prevent anyone reaching the park where Ms Bhutto hopes to address supporters.

'We will ensure that they don't violate the ban on rallies, and if they do it, the government will take action according to the law,' he said.

Adding to the tension, he also said there had been a 'very specific threat of suicide attack in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi'.

But a defiant Ms Bhutto asked: 'How many people can they put behind bars? We will produce so many that they will not have enough jails.'

Stepping up the pressure on Gen Musharraf, she also announced a 300km march from the eastern city of Lahore to the capital Islamabad, to take place early next week.

Joining the calls for protests, Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan made a haggard-looking appearance in a video issued from hiding yesterday.

'If we don't resist, it will take Pakistan on the path of destruction,' Mr Khan said in the short video message broadcast on private Geo TV.

Mr Khan was placed under house arrest at his home in Lahore on Saturday. He said police had ransacked his house and roughed up his family, but he had escaped before they returned to take him to jail.

Meanwhile, Mr Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, head of Gen Musharraf's ruling Pakistan Muslim League party, hinted that an end to the emergency was near.

'I am sure it will end in two to three weeks as President Pervez Musharraf is aware of the consequences of long emergency rule,' he was quoted as saying by the Dawn newspaper.

Last night, police used tear gas to disperse PPP lawmakers protesting outside Parliament in Islamabad.

Police also pushed back about 80 lawyers who tried to gather near the main court complex in Rawalpindi, said Mr Mohammed Khan Zaman, a member of the local lawyers' association.

ASSOCIATED PRESS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE