Top Judge's Ouster Shakes Pakistan
Political Opponents Are Arrested as Protest Swells Against Move by Musharraf

By Griff Witte
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, March 17, 2007

KABUL, March 16 -- Pakistani police fired rubber bullets at protesters, ransacked a television station and detained key opposition leaders Friday, as anger swelled over Gen. Pervez Musharraf's suspension of the nation's chief justice.

Opposition groups pledged to hold larger demonstrations against the government, and Pakistani political analysts said Musharraf faces the greatest challenge to his presidency since he took office in a bloodless coup in 1999.

"This has shaken the country. It has shaken the government," said Ayaz Amir, a columnist for the English-language newspaper Dawn. "It has all the potential of getting out of hand and turning into something bigger."

Musharraf last week suspended the Supreme Court's chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, citing unspecified abuses of authority. Since then, furor over the move has grown. Political opponents and journalists have speculated that Musharraf feared Chaudhry might try to force the president to step down as head of the army or might be planning to play a role in upcoming elections.

For much of the day Friday, thousands of protesters from across Pakistan's political spectrum jammed the area around the Supreme Court building in Islamabad, the capital. They threw rocks, called Musharraf "a dog" and chanted "Go, Musharraf, Go!" as they demanded the president's resignation.

The protesters had to break through barricades to reach the main site of the demonstration. Razor wire ringed key government buildings, and checkpoints prevented many vehicles from entering the city.

Witnesses at the scene said that police used tear gas, rubber bullets and baton charges in an attempt to disperse the crowd and that they arrested numerous opposition leaders. Dozens of opposition members, as well as lawyers from across the country, had also been detained overnight in advance of the rally.

Among those arrested were Qazi Hussain Ahmad, a leader of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, which is a coalition of far-right Islamic parties, and Rafiq Tarar, a former president of Pakistan who was detained during a rally in Lahore.

Information Minister Tariq Azim Khan defended the arrests, saying that demonstrators were blocking traffic and clashing with police.

"We have to ensure that nobody is above the law," he said. "It doesn't matter if they're political leaders. Anybody who takes the law into their own hands, they have to face the consequences."

Opposition leaders accused the government of attempting to crush democratic institutions, which have only gradually been taking hold in Pakistan in recent years.

"Today we've seen an assault on the judiciary and the media, and there's now a groundswell against the high-handedness of the regime," said Sherry Rehman, information secretary of the left-leaning Pakistan Peoples Party. "This is not something that will die out."

The protests were broadcast live on the independent television station Geo TV, and riot police stormed the station's Islamabad office during the protests in an attempt to shut it down. Geo TV representatives said the police released tear gas in the office, roughed up the station's journalists and trashed furniture.

Musharraf later apologized in a live interview with Geo.

"It was a very sad incident. It should have not happened, and I condemn it," he said, adding, "The culprits responsible for it must be identified, and action against them must be taken."

On Thursday night, the government had banned a Geo TV news show hosted by Kamran Khan, who is also a Washington Post special correspondent. Khan was allowed back on the air Friday.

Ali Dayan Hasan, a researcher for the advocacy group Human Rights Watch, called the Musharraf government's reaction to the protests "a disgrace."

"The government of Pakistan had every opportunity to prevent the violence that took place," Hasan said. "But it seems there was a willful policy to attack. This seems like the behavior of an insecure and desperate government."

The intensifying domestic pressure on Musharraf comes just weeks after a visit by Vice President Cheney in which U.S. officials pushed for greater Pakistani cooperation in anti-terrorist campaigns against the Taliban and al-Qaeda. The United States has long considered Musharraf a critical ally, but since Cheney's visit there has been widespread speculation in the Pakistani news media that the relationship between Islamabad and Washington is fraying.

U.S. officials on Friday declined to criticize Musharraf. In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack defended him as "acting in the best interests of Pakistan and the Pakistani people." But he also called on both sides to show restraint.

"Protesters should be able to exercise their right to really voice their opinions with respect to political matters, and the police have a job to do as well," McCormack said.

Musharraf has maintained relatively broad popularity in Pakistan during his eight years in office. Opposition to his rule has long been fractured, but the dismay over Chaudhry's suspension seems to have united disparate groups, at least for now.

Lawyers have spearheaded most of the protests across the country since the chief justice was suspended. Many have boycotted court proceedings or held hunger strikes to protest what they see as unconstitutional interference in the judicial system.

Talat Hussain, director of news and current affairs for Pakistan's Aaj Television, said Musharraf would have trouble dismissing the protests over Chaudhry because they are not driven by politics or religion, but by concern for the rule of law and the constitution.

"The judge was neither a political threat nor was he associated with an extremist threat," Hussain said. "Musharraf's credibility seems to be very, very low. And he's vulnerable."

A judicial council is reviewing Chaudhry's suspension to determine whether it was lawful. The council did not reach a decision during a hearing Friday and will resume deliberations Wednesday.

Chaudhry, who has been held under house arrest, has said he does not expect a fair hearing.

Special correspondent Shahzad Khurram in Islamabad contributed to this report.