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Pakistan quells opposition

As elections near, police round up more than 20 key opponents to the president.

By Wasington Post
Published September 23, 2007

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - With President Pervez Musharraf facing an election in just two weeks, police on Saturday night arrested key opposition leaders who had vowed to try to block the general's plans for winning a new term.

Opposition party spokesmen said more than 20 leaders were rounded up at their homes and served with 30-day detention orders or were being sought for arrest.

Several are members of Parliament, the body that will vote along with the provincial assemblies Oct. 6 in a hotly contested attempt by Musharraf to extend his reign for another five years.

"This just shows that Musharraf has gone berserk," said Ahsan Iqbal, spokesman for a faction of the Pakistan Muslim League led by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. "He wants to arrest all the opposition leaders and then get himself elected. But what kind of election is that?"

Iqbal said that he was also being sought by police but that he and others had gone into hiding.

The government had no immediate comment on the detentions.

Musharraf, who has ruled Pakistan since a military-led coup in 1999, has vowed to win a new term in a vote from assemblies that are about to expire. He has also said he will stand for election in uniform but will resign the post of army chief if he wins.

Opposition groups are challenging those plans in the Supreme Court, saying Musharraf's election would be unconstitutional.

The politicians arrested Saturday night all appeared to be members of Sharif's center-right party and a coalition of conservative religious parties. Both groups have vowed to quit Parliament this week in protest of Musharraf's election plans. They have also vowed to wage a campaign in the streets to try to stop him.

Javed Hashmi, acting president of Sharif's party, said he was asleep in his room at the Parliament Lodges - where legislators stay while in Islamabad - when police came to his door at 10:30 p.m. and served him with detention papers. They did not specify the charges, Hashmi said.

[Last modified September 23, 2007, 01:35:11]