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Pakistani Police Detain Political Party Members
ISLAMABAD, March 20 (News Agencies) - Pakistani police Tuesday detained hundreds of members of political parties to stop a rally for the restoration of democracy planned later this week, officials and politicians said.
Police raided the homes of politicians and party activists throughout Lahore, the capital of central Punjab province, ahead of the rally there on Friday, or Pakistan Day, they said.
Pakistan People's Party (PPP) deputy secretary of information Altaf Ahmed Qureshi said "several hundred" people from the two major parties had been detained, while an official source put the number at 250.
"The raids are still going on," Qureshi said.
It is not the first time the military government of General Pervez Musharraf has used police to round-up political opponents to prevent opposition demonstrations.
But this crackdown coincides with a meeting of the two-day session Commonwealth ministerial action group meeting in London in which concerns about democracy in Pakistan have topped the agenda.
Pakistan was suspended from the councils of the Commonwealth after Musharraf's bloodless coup in October 1999.
In London, Commonwealth ministers Tuesday warned the Pakistani military regime to speed up a promised plan for the restoration of democracy or face "stronger measures" from the global body.
A communiqué said the Commonwealth ministers were "concerned over the harassment of political parties, including the restrictions imposed on democratic activity, processes and institutions and the detention of persons without due process of law."
Musharraf has banned public rallies, suspended parliament and the constitution, and launched a tough anti-corruption drive against former politicians since he seized power in a coup in 1999, toppling the government of Nawaz Sharif.
"We are just enforcing the ban on holding political meetings at public places and have detained these people under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance for two weeks," said a senior police officer who asked not to be named.
The PPP and Sharif's now divided Pakistan Muslim League - Pakistan's main parties and former bitter enemies - have joined forces under the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) to challenge military rule.
ARD chief Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan said that the public meeting would "go on" despite the crackdown.
"It is our fundamental right and by putting a ban the regime is violating the U.N. charter of which Pakistan is also a signatory," he said.
PPP spokesman Nazir Dhoki said: "We knew this would happen but the arrests will not deter our party men. The meeting will be held as scheduled.
"People will take out pro-democracy processions and even if the Mochi Gate venue is sealed they will hold the rally on the main road or stage protest sit-ins at different places in Lahore."
Most Pakistanis, who saw the Sharif government as hopelessly corrupt, generally welcomed Musharraf's power grab.
But recently he has had to admit that his honeymoon was over amid growing dissatisfaction with the military's failure to boost the economy and control violent religious activists.
Musharraf has vowed to stamp out corruption, revive the economy and create a system of "genuine democracy" before stepping aside for a new generation of elected civilian leaders by October next year.
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