ISLAMABAD (AP): Pakistan's deposed chief justice called on lawyers nationwide to defy baton-wielding police and protest President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's imposition of emergency rule.
``Go to every corner of Pakistan and give the message that this is the time to sacrifice,'' Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who is under virtual house arrest in Islamabad, told lawyers by mobile phone Monday. ``Don't be afraid. God will help us and the day will come when you'll see the constitution supreme and no dictatorship for a long time.''
Later, in the central city of Multan, hundreds of police blocked about 1,000 attorneys from leaving a district court complex to stage a street rally in defiance of a ban. Both sides pelted each other with stones and officers swung batons to disperse the crowd.
An Associated Press reporter saw at least three wounded lawyers, two bleeding from the head. Three police were also hurt by bricks flung by lawyers.
The clashes marked the second day of unrest since Musharraf, who took power in a 1999 coup, declared the emergency. He suspended the constitution, ousted independent-minded judges, put a stranglehold on the media and granted sweeping powers to authorities to crush dissent. Thousands of people have been rounded up and thrown in jail.
No comments:
Post a Comment