Pakistani officials detain opponents

Chicago Tribune

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The Pakistani government detained hundreds of political opponents and lawyers Wednesday and banned public gatherings in two provinces, in a move designed to weaken a protest march and reminiscent of crackdowns under military ruler Pervez Musharraf.

The detentions are likely to further damage the credibility of the U.S.-allied civilian government, elected last year and led by the Pakistan Peoples Party, and of already unpopular President Asif Ali Zardari, according to analysts, the Pakistani political opposition and average Pakistanis interviewed Wednesday.

If the confrontation continues, it has the potential to increasingly destabilize the nuclear-armed nation and hurt the government’s ability to focus on the fight against terrorists along the country’s porous border with Afghanistan, analysts said. The political turmoil comes at a time when Pakistan is negotiating two truces with militants and dealing with an economic crisis that has fueled anger against the Pakistan Peoples Party.

“They’re doing exactly what a dictator would do,” said Talat Masood, a retired general and security analyst in Pakistan. “It’s going to turn violent if they really suppress this march like they’re trying to.”

Some analysts also said the political confrontation raised the possibility of army intervention.

Pakistan has been run by military rulers for more than half its 61 years, and army chiefs have traditionally used political turmoil as a reason to step in.

The detentions were aimed at undermining a planned march by government opponents from various cities to Islamabad, the capital, critics said. The march, demanding the restoration of the judges fired by Musharraf in 2007, was supposed to start today and last four or five days, ending with a sit-in in Islamabad.