World | Pakistan
PML-N vows support to lawyers
Leaders of a key party in Pakistan's ruling coalition pledged on Tuesday to support lawyer-led protest marches demanding the reinstatement of judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf.
- AP
- Published: 00:03 June 11, 2008
- Image Credit: Reuters
- Lawyers gather to receive deposed chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry during their cross-country rally in Multan.
Multan: Leaders of a key party in Pakistan's ruling coalition pledged on Tuesday to support lawyer-led protest marches demanding the reinstatement of judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf.
Security was beefed up in the capital, Islamabad, where the processions are expected to culminate with a rally and sit-in in front of Parliament. Large shipping containers blocked the road leading to the legislature.
The so-called "Long March" could intensify pressure on Musharraf to resign.
But the demonstrations also are heightening tension between ex-prime ninister Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) and its senior coalition partner, the party of Asif Ali Zardari.
Sharif was to fly back to Pakistan from London yesterday to join the protests.
Both parties say they want to reinstate dozens of judges fired by the US-backed president last year to avoid legal challenges to his rule, but they have disputed the mechanics.
Sharif says the judges should be restored quickly via an executive order from the prime minister, but Zardari wants to link their return to a package of constitutional changes.
The parties also appear to differ on how to approach common archrival Musharraf, who has said he will not step down. Sharif wants him impeached and put on trial for treason. Zardari shows a softer tone.
The shaky coalition also faces other challenges, including an ailing economy and ongoing Islamist militancy - a major concern of the US and other Western nations.
The lawyers' movement, which spearheaded protests against Musharraf last year, is demanding that the new civilian administration quickly reinstate the judges.
Convoys of lawyers and other activists were expected to arrive yesterday in the central city of Multan. There, Zulfikar Khosa, a top official in Sharif's party in Punjab province, said party members would march with the protesters, who then are to head to Lahore.
"We will be part of this struggle until the removal of the dictator and success of the lawyers," Khosa said.
Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik said Monday that the government would not try to stop the demonstrators from marching to Islamabad.
Peaceful
"This is the right of people to demonstrate. As long as they are peaceful, we will be peaceful, and we are assured by them that they will be peaceful," said Malik, a Zardari ally.
However, security was beefed up in the capital.
Several 40-foot shipping containers blocked the main road leading to the president's office and Parliament, with more than a dozen more containers awaiting use nearby.
Paramilitary forces also built several new sandbag positions in the area.
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