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Pakistan opposition goes into hiding

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is "desperate" to crush his critics, an opposition leader said yesterday, after police detained several senior members of an alliance trying to obstruct the military ruler's pursuit of another term in office.

Police swept the Pakistani capital late on Saturday, arresting at least four senior figures in the opposition coalition, the All Parties Democratic Movement, which has announced its lawmakers will resign from parliament to deny legitimacy to Musharraf's reelection.

A presidential vote by federal and provincial legislators is scheduled for Oct. 6. The opposition claims Musharraf is not constitutionally qualified to run while he still holds the powerful position of army chief. Musharraf has offered to resign his military post, but only after he is voted in as president.

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

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

Iqbal said many senior opposition leaders, including himself, have gone into hiding.

"The government cannot break our resolve to struggle for democracy through such fascist tactics," Iqbal said by mobile phone.

Police served a warrant on Javed Hashmi, acting president of Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N, at an apartment complex for lawmakers on 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 [military] uniform, not the people of Pakistan, are the source of power."

Raja Zafarul Haq, chairman of Sharif's party, was detained, as were Hafiz Hussain Ahmed and Mian Mohammed Aslam, lawmakers from a religious coalition opposed to Musharraf.

The sweep mirrored tactics used to ensure no crowds turned out to welcome Sharif when he tried to return from exile on Sept. 10. Hundreds of opposition activists were briefly jailed to prevent them reaching Islamabad airport. Sharif was swiftly expelled to Saudi Arabia.

Musharraf was nominated to run by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q party.

Members of some parties have asked the Supreme Court to declare Musharraf ineligible to run for president and pledged to mount street protests.

Anti-Musharraf lawyers said they would blockade the Election Commission to prevent the general from filing his nomination papers on Thursday.

Federal and city government officials could not be reached for comment yesterday.

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

Underscoring the threat, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden urged Pakistanis to rebel against Musharraf.

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, a liberal vowing to return on Oct. 18 after eight years of self-exile.

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