Pakistani Police Attack Lawyers, Reporters

Protest Against Musharraf Candidacy Turns Into Battle; More Than 40 Injured

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Sept. 29 -- Police in riot gear attacked lawyers and journalists with batons, tear gas and rocks in a running battle Saturday at the gates of the Supreme Court, a day after judges ruled that President Pervez Musharraf can stand for election to another term.

The clash, which lasted nearly four hours, began when about 200 lawyers tried to march from the Supreme Court to the Election Commission to protest Musharraf's candidacy. They were vastly outnumbered by security forces, who charged into the crowd swinging metal-tipped sticks. The lawyers fought back, and a melee ensued in which more than 40 people were injured.

Police chased the black-suited lawyers onto the grounds of the Supreme Court, which was shrouded in a haze of tear gas for much of the day. One protester was beaten as he tried to retreat into the court building. After he collapsed to the ground, uniformed officers continued to thrash him with sticks, while plainclothes security officials pelted him with rocks.

"This is a naked dictatorship," said lawyer and human rights activist Asma Jahangir, her shawl soaked in blood after she used it to stanch the bleeding from a fellow lawyer's head wound. "Musharraf wants to show he is lord and master. He wants to show he has the gun. When you have no moral authority, you use what you have."

Private television stations that had been broadcasting live coverage of the protests were swiftly taken off the air as the violence began. When Pakistani journalists tried to enter the Election Commission, they, too, were attacked by police. At least six were injured.

"We were just here to cover the event," said Mazhar Abbas, secretary general of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists. "I simply don't understand why the government did this."

Soon afterward, government information official Tariq Azim Khan showed up at the scene in the back of an ambulance. Irate journalists yanked him from the vehicle and started to pummel him with their fists before police grabbed him and whisked him away.

Saturday's violence, which also included smaller-scale clashes in the cities of Peshawar and Karachi, showed that despite receiving a major boost from a favorable Supreme Court ruling Friday, Musharraf's troubles might not be over. While lawyers were hoping to knock him off the ballot, the court opted instead to let Musharraf run for a new term in an election slated for next Saturday. Now the lawyers are hoping to take their struggle to the streets.

Government officials said the security crackdown was necessary to maintain law and order after the lawyers had threatened to storm the Election Commission building and tear up Musharraf's nomination papers.

"The lawyers and, to some extent, the journalists, they started it," said Khan, who was not seriously injured.

As chaos reigned in the street outside, the Election Commission met to review the eligibility of the 43 candidates who filed papers this week to run for president. Only six were approved, including Musharraf, who is believed to be the only candidate with sufficient support in the national and provincial assemblies to win.

Lawyers have been campaigning against the general for months. They say his election would be invalid because he is trying to secure another five years in office from assemblies that are about to expire. They also object to his plan to run while in uniform. Musharraf, who came to power in a 1999 military-led coup, has said he will step down as army chief if he wins another term.