ISLAMABAD, 23 September 2007 — In countrywide swoops, police yesterday arrested leaders, lawmakers and workers of the opposition All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) ahead of coming presidential election.
Soon after iftar, contingents of federal police surrounded parliamentary lodges in Islamabad and began arresting most of the opposition deputies. Zafar Ali Shah, a leader of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), told Arab News: “Our acting President Javed Hashemi and Tehmina Daultana, a member of the National Assembly, were arrested this evening.”
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam deputy Hafiz Hussain Ahmad told GEO television channel from his home: “Police have come to arrest me but without proper warrants.”
Reports from Lahore, Peshawar, Karachi and Quetta said workers, leaders and legislators affiliated to the APDM were being rounded up. The arrests come ahead of Sept. 27 when the Election Commission of Pakistan will receive nomination papers from presidential candidates. The movement and lawyers’ associations have threatened to launch countrywide protest rallies and blockades of the Election Commission building on Sept. 27. Tehrik-e-Insaf party leader Imran Khan is reported to have gone underground to avoid arrest.
A government statement said yesterday that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had urged lawmakers to back President Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s bid for re-election, claiming it would strengthen Pakistan’s democracy.
Musharraf was nominated by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q party after he offered this past week to quit as army chief if he wins another five-year term from lawmakers on Oct. 6.
Aziz, who came to power in 2004 after then-Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali resigned over differences with Musharraf, is supervising the powerful military leader’s campaign by holding meetings with legislators.
On Friday, he told Cabinet ministers at his office that Musharraf’s re-election “will augur well for the stability, progress and prosperity of Pakistan and move the country further on the path of democracy.” However, he did not elaborate.
Aziz made his comments shortly after Musharraf shuffled the military brass, pressing on with his plan to stay in power despite simmering street protests.
— With input from agencies
