Pakistan police clash with protesters amid rising crisis

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(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-03-15 20:51

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan police clashed with the protesters in eastern Pakistani city of Lahore on Sunday as the prevailing political crisis is worsening in the country.

A policeman fires tear-gas during a countrywide anti-government protest march in Lahore March 15, 2009. [Agencies]

The protesters turned angry on Sunday after reports came that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, also chief of the opposition party Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), was put under house arrest and the government intensified crackdown on the lawyer's " long march".

TV footage showed that the police fired tear-gas shell to disperse the protesters, while the protesters threw stones to police in Lahore, capital of eastern Punjab province, where the PML-N holds power.

But the Advisor to the Prime Minister on Interior Affairs Rehman Malik Sunday denied reports about Sharif's detention.

The lawyers and political activists kicked off their "long march" on March 12 and they are expected to reach Islamabad on March 16 and stage sit-in to urge to government to restore the judges sacked in 2007.

Sharif was expected to lead the "long march" of lawyers on Sunday morning. The government has put in place security measures and the roads leading to Rawalpindi and Islamabad were blocked.

Some 60 Supreme Court and High Courts judges were sacked in November 2007 when then-President Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency. Some of them took fresh oath of office while others including former Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry are yet to be restored.

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