Thousands of supporters of former Pakistan premier Nawaz Sharif protested yesterday, a day after a court ruling to exclude him and his brother from elected office raised fears of renewed political turmoil.
The nuclear-armed US ally appeared set for a power struggle after the supreme court ruling that also brought down a provincial government controlled by Mr Sharif, the opposition leader and President Asif Ali Zardari’s main rival.
Mr Sharif told a rally of several thousand supporters near the eastern city of Lahore, the capital of Punjab province and the Sharifs’ power-base, that the people rejected the “bogus” court ruling, for which he said Mr Zardari was responsible.
“The decisions of the masses have always been trampled either by judges or dictators,” Mr Sharif told the crowd. “Today the decision of the people has to be accepted ... we’ll see who dares defy this decision of the people.”
The court decision to nullify the election last year of Mr Sharif’s younger brother, Shahbaz, as Punjab’s chief minister and to leave in place an electoral ban on Nawaz Sharif raised fears of a return to the turbulence of the 1990s, a decade that ended in a military takeover.
Mostly peaceful protests were held across Punjab yesterday but police fired tear gas to disperse a crowd that burnt cars on the outskirts of Islamabad. Protesters stoned a bank in the town of Multan.
Pakistan can ill afford the distraction of political turmoil. The economy is only afloat because of an International Monetary Fund loan and Islamist militants threaten security.
In Lahore, about 3,000 Sharif supporters took to the streets outside the provincial assembly burning tyres and chanting anti-government slogans. Police had earlier sealed off the assembly to stop Sharif party members, who hold a majority of seats, holding a debate.
“He has triggered a war which he can’t control,” Sharif party politician Rana Ijaz Ahmed Khan told the crowd, referring to Mr Zardari. “We’ve accepted it as a challenge and will teach power-hungry Zardari a lesson.” A showdown between Mr Zardari, widower of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, and two-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif has been brewing since they forced former army chief Pervez Musharraf to quit as president last August.
Mr Zardari imposed governor’s rule, or direct rule by his representative, in Punjab for two months late on Wednesday.
Mr Zardari’s party dismissed any suggestion of the president’s involvement in the court ruling and said it should not be exploited to derail national reconciliation.
Prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, a member of Zardari’s party, said he was saddened by the court ruling.
Mr Sharif’s party came second to Mr Zardari’s in an election a year ago. It later dropped out of a coalition over a dispute over the restoration of judges Mr Musharraf dismissed in 2007.
Mr Sharif’s supporters see the supreme court as a tool of Mr Zardari and Mr Sharif has refused to recognise the legitimacy of a chief justice he regards as a Musharraf appointee. – (Reuters)