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Former Pakistani PM's movement restricted

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-03-15 14:24

ISLAMABAD - The government of Pakistan has restricted the movement of former Prime Minister and chief of a major opposition party Nawaz Sharif on Sunday, the private TV channel DAWN NEWS reported.

Pakistan's former prime minister and opposition leader Nawaz Sharif speaks during a protest rally against government in Abbottabad March 11, 2009. [Agencies]

The government restricted Sharif's movement for three days, said the report. It is a move with an apparent aim to foil the lawyers' "long march", which Sharif announced on Saturday evening to lead.

Sharif, also chief of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), told supporters on Saturday evening that he would lead the "long march" on Sunday morning. He also said he could get arrested or put under house arrest.

The PML-N workers and supporters clashed with police outside Sharif's residence and scores of them were detained, according to the DAWN NEWS.

Meanwhile, Sharif's brother Shahbaz Sharif, who is also the top leader of PML-N and former chief minister of Punjab province, has managed to reach Rawalpindi, a garrison city near the capital.

He was stopped near Kohnoor Mills in Rawalpindi, the DAWN NEWS quoted police sources as saying.

The lawyers' "Long March" kicked off on March 12 and the crackdown on participants is still continuing as hundreds of political activists are detained.

Local TV channel reports said that some prominent political leaders were stopped from boarding flights heading for the capital Islamabad.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday termed the "Long March" as dangerous while talking to the top leaders of the ruling People's Party.

However, Sharif on Saturday evening said the "Long March" would bring prosperity to the country. He also said that Pakistan needed a change and the change would certainly come.

The lawyers' movement is aimed at securing the restoration of all the judges who were sacked in November 2007 when then- President Pervez Musharraf imposed a state of emergency.

Sharif insisted that all the judges including deposed former Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry should be restored.

Zardari has said he is ready to accept all the demands put forward by the PML-N except for the reinstatement of Chaudhry, local newspaper Daily Times reported on Sunday.

Musharraf promulgated the "National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO)" when he declared a state of emergency in 2007. According to the NRO, the cases which the slain PPP leader Benazir Bhutto and Zardari were facing were removed.

Analysts said that Chaudhry, once reinstated, might challenge the legitimacy of the NRO promulgated by Musharraf and it would put Zardari's fate at risk.

Sharif has vowed to take part in the "Long March" and the proposed sit-in in Islamabad at all costs.

The United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Saturday phoned both Zardari and Sharif to defuse the tension in the country. The Daily Times quoted sources as saying that Hillary tried to persuade Sharif to show flexibility in reconciling differences with Zardari so that issues could be settled amicably.

In a conversation with Zardari on the phone, Hillary assured that the United States would help the Pakistani government in stabilizing the country.