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| Govt panics ahead of lawyers march |
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Thursday, March 12, 2009
Hundreds of long marchers held; rallies banned in Punjab, Sindh; Army, Rangers deployed
By Muhammad Anis, Shakeel Anjum & Khalid Iqbal
ISLAMABAD: A massive crackdown on the opposition parties and lawyers was launched on Tuesday midnight across the country to foil the long march and sit-in.
Hundreds of activists of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and lawyers were rounded up, while a large number of political and lawyer leaders went into hiding.
PML-N Chairman Raja Zafarul Haq was placed under house arrest at his sector G-7 residence in Islamabad. Raja Zafar, also a newly-elected senator, said he had received no detention orders but the police locked the gate to his residence from outside at 3am. He said he had heard that Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had taken note of the incident and would intervene in the matter.
Islamabad Chief Commissioner Kamran Lashari, when contacted by The News at 5:30pm, said: “The PML-N chairman was confined to his residence but now three policemen deployed outside his residence have been withdrawn.” He said Raja Zafar was not among those who would be put under house arrest.
Sources said over 100 political workers and lawyers had been arrested only from Rawalpindi and Islamabad with most held in the wee hours of Wednesday from their houses. The police sources said the arrests were being made under the Maintenance of Public Order.
However, the city’s top administrator confirmed that 24 political workers and lawyers had been arrested from Islamabad. Reports about arrest of workers of the PML-N and the JI and lawyers have also been received from Lahore, Gujranwala, Sheikhupura, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Mandi Bahauddin, Jhelum, Attock, Jhang, Borewala and other cities. Over one dozen PML-N workers have been arrested from Karachi. According to official sources, over 400 arrests had been made in the Punjab, Karachi and the federal capital. A large number of trailer trucks have been impounded to block the main entry roads to the capital.
Lawyers held a sit-in in front of the office of the inspector general police in Rawalpindi to protest the arrest of their colleagues. The spokesmen for the PML-N and the JI said police had entered the houses of their workers without lady police and harassed women and children. They said the police on failing to arrest political workers held their relatives and servants.
In one such case, the Pirwadhai police entered the house of Shabbir Mir, a JI activist, in Bangash Colony at about 2:30am and dragged him out of his bed. The police beat up Shabbir Mir and arrested him barefooted. The relatives of Shabbir said the police also used abusive language against the women present in the house.
The police raided the house of MNA Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry in Islamabad and arrested his brother. Police also conducted raids to arrest PML-N leader Hanif Abbasi, former MNA Mian Muhammad Aslam, JI Media Director Hafiz Sajjad Qamar, JI Rawalpindi chapter General Secretary Shamsur Rehman Swati and Shabab-e-Milli Rawalpindi chapter President Shahid Parvaiz Gilani. But these leaders had gone into the hiding. Tahira Abdullah, a human rights activist, was released after being kept into custody for three hours.
MNA Hanif Abbasi said Pakistan People’s Party leaders Zammurad Khan and Aamir Fida Paracha, while sitting in the office of a senior police official, were leading and monitoring the crackdown in Rawalpindi.
Security agency sources said Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif, Qazi Hussain Ahmad, Liaquat Baloch, Dr Farid Paracha, Imran Khan, Javaid Hashmi, Captain Safdar, Chaudhry Nisar Ali, Pervaiz Rashid, Raja Zafarul Haq, Khwaja Saad Rafique, Sardar Mehtab Abbasi, Khawaja Asif, Abid Sher Ali, Tehmina Daulatana, Zafar Iqbal Jhagra, Ehsen Iqbal, Rana Sanaullah, Haji Pervaiz, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Raja Ashfaq Sarwar, Malik Ibrar, Chaudhary Sher Ali, Barjees Tahir, Rana Mehmoodul Hassan and Hanif Abbasi would be placed under house arrest after March 13.
The Islamabad police arrested four lawyers from the Judges Colony at the Chief Justice’s House when they went to meet deposed chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. The lawyers have been identified as Raja Zahid, Mian Afzal, Muhammad Ishtiaq and Abid Chohan and they have been shifted to an undisclosed place.
The police raided the houses of Rawalpindi District Bar Association President Toufiq Asif, High Court Bar Association President Shehzad Gebha, General Secretary Saddique Awan, Justice (retd) Tariq Mehmood, Hamid Khan, Syed Intizar Mehdi Shah, Raja Zubair and many others. But they have gone into hiding.
Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Ali Ahmed Kurd told The News that the government was trying to create fear and panic among lawyers. “The police are illegally raiding houses of lawyers to foil the long march but they would reach at the Constitution Avenue on March 16 for the sit-in at any cost,” he said.
Athar Minhallah, spokesman for Justice Iftikhar, said the PPP government was following the footsteps of Pervez Musharraf. “It is possible that the government would forcefully get the house of Iftikhar Chaudhry vacated,” he said.
Former SCBA President Aitzaz Ahsan said the government could not foil the long march and the sit-in would be held at all costs. District Bar Association President Taufiq Asif said he had escaped arrest because he was not present at his house. “Caravans will reach Rawalpindi on March 15 then they all would proceed towards Islamabad via the Benazir Bhutto Road,” he added.
Agencies add: The Punjab government has decided to deploy Army in 30 districts and Rangers in 11 districts of the Punjab, Online reported. However, Punjab Home Secretary Rao Iftikhar Ahmad told reporters that the Army had not been deployed in any part of the province while the Rangers were on standby to maintain law and order.
He said only 300 people had been arrested throughout the province because they were a threat for the general public. Section 144 has been imposed in the Punjab for 30 days and in Sindh for 15 days. Public gatherings have been banned in the Punjab and Sindh, the home secretaries in both provinces said.
Sources said the detention orders of Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Imran Khan and several other leaders had also been issued.
Reports said more than 75 PML-N workers had been arrested from Gujranwala, 80 from Sheikhupura, nine from Toba Tak Singh, 22 from Multan, nine from Gujrat, four from Taxila, 55 from Sargodha, 13 from Khushab district and 19 workers belonging to different opposition parties have been arrested from Mandi Bahauddin. Sources said the police had raided the residence of Imran Khan in Islamabad.
In Lahore, the police raided the houses of a large number of PML-N workers, Shahbaz Sharif’s coordinator Imtiaz Tanooli and former Punjab prisons minister Ghafoor Ahmad. An important meeting presided over by the Lahore CCPO was held in Lahore. The sources said lists of lawyers and political workers had been handed over to SHOs and they have been asked to immediately arrest them. “No arrest orders have been issued for any minister and MPA,” the sources added.
Containers have been placed at borders of Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan to stop caravans. The caravan coming from Balochistan would be stopped near Jacobabad at the Sindh-Balochistan border while caravans coming from different areas of Sindh and Balochistan would be stopped at Kashmore.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
