Islamabad - Leaders of Pakistan's ruling party led a rampage through the Supreme Court yesterday, sending judges into flight, and forcing a halt to the trial of the Prime Minister, Mr Nawaz Sharif, for contempt of court.
In an evidently organised attack, hundreds of supporters of the Pakistan Muslim League - dock workers from Karachi, student leaders from Mr Sharif's home town of Lahore, and activists from the North-West Frontier Province - were to Islamabad in the morning, where they shouted slogans and lit firecrackers outside the court. The trial of Mr Sharif for contempt of court has become the focus for a clash of egos between the Chief Justice, Sajjad Ali Shah, and the Prime Minister that has brought democratic politics in Pakistan - just nine years old - close to the breaking point several times in the last four months. If convicted, Mr Sharif could be barred from politics.