ISLAMABAD, 17 March 2007 — Pakistan riot police clashed with protesters, fired rubber bullets and tear gas and arrested dozens of people yesterday as they tried to quell a spiraling row over the sacking of the nation’s top judge Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry. Police also smashed equipment at the Geo television station that was broadcasting the clashes near the Supreme Court in Islamabad, where Chaudhry attended a hearing into misconduct charges against him.
Musharraf himself apologized after police damaged equipment, roughed up staff and fired tear gas at the offices of private Geo television in Islamabad.
“I would like to apologize, such an incident should not have happened. The culprits must be identified and punished today,” Musharraf told the channel in a rare live telephone interview.
The incident came a day after Geo said Pakistani regulators had ordered it to stop airing a flagship daily news program.
All political parties including Islamists, lawyers and journalists expressed complete solidarity with the suspended chief justice and joined the protests.
Senior chairman of Pakistan People’s Party Makhdum Amin Fahim told Arab News while standing in front of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, “We are standing on Constitution Avenue. It is known as Constitution Avenue because after the country’s unanimous constitution was framed then Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had renamed this avenue. We are here to defend the constitution and establish the rule of law.”
The protests capped a week of growing anger at Musharraf who ordered Chaudhry’s suspension. The United States, Musharraf’s close ally in the “war on terror,” said the judicial dispute was a “matter of deep concern” while rights groups and leading foreign newspapers have warned of a constitutional crisis in Pakistan.
“This is the beginning of the end of President Musharraf, his cronies and collaborators,” Khwaja Asif, a senior leader of former Premier Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League party said during the protest in the capital.
Police seized Qazi Hussain Ahmad, the president of Pakistan’s main alliance of religious parties, when he tried to break through a security cordon after holding open-air Friday prayers.
Former President Rafique Tarar and former spymaster Lt. Gen. Hamid Gul too were mercilessly charged with batons by the police. Security forces erected barbed wire and concrete barricades to seal off the Supreme Court but hundreds of people including lawyers entered the court compound as Chaudhry arrived.
A crowd of around 1,000 people outside the court chanted “Down with Musharraf,” “Go Musharraf go” and “Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest)” and waved black banners.
The Supreme Judicial Council, which is dealing with the accusations against Chaudhry, later ordered that there should be “no restrictions on the movement of Justice Chaudhry and his family members,” his laywer Hamid Khan said.
— With input from agencies
