Lahore, November 14
The Pakistan government today intensified its crackdown on the Opposition protesting against the emergency by slapping the draconian anti-terrorism act on cricket legend and politician Imran Khan while former Premier Benazir Bhutto spent the second day under house arrest here.
Imran was charged under Pakistan’s anti-terrorism act, which includes penalties that can carry the death sentence or life imprisonment, media reports said.
Imran, who had gone underground following imposition of emergency on November 3, emerged from hiding to join a protest rally of students at Punjab University here.
However, he was promptly detained by radical students at the university and
subsequently
handed over to the police. He was finally taken to an undisclosed location, TV channels here reported. Before he was handed over to the police, Imran, leader of the Tehreek-e Insaf, was locked up in a building on the campus for almost 90 minutes by members of the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba (IJT), student wing of the hardline Jamaat-e-Islami.Speaking to reporters at the university gate, Imran urged the people to prepare for a campaign against President Pervez Musharraf and the emergency. The police said an FIR would be lodged against him for violating emergency regulations and participating in a rally.
Earlier, the police in Faislabad arrested Shah Mehmood Qureshi, a senior leader of Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), who was leading a “long march” against emergency after the former premier was put under house arrest here yesterday.
As he was being taken into custody, Qureshi said he had been illegally arrested along with three PPP members of the Punjab provincial assembly.
“The long march will continue. I have asked other PPP leaders of Punjab who have not been arrested to carry the torch of democracy and move forward,” Qureshi told Dawn News channel on phone.
Qureshi had set off yesterday for Islamabad with about 100 vehicles after authorities served a seven-day detention order on Bhutto and barred her from leaving the home of PPP leader Latif Khosa, where she was staying in Lahore.
The PPP would continue to keep the “flag of democracy flying” so that Musharraf was pressured to restore the constitution and fundamental rights which he had suspended with the imposition of emergency on November 3, Qureshi said. “We have to fight against dictatorship.”
Bhutto yesterday called on Musharraf to quit as both President and Army Chief and ruled out serving under him in any future government.
She has also stepped up efforts to forge a united front with other opposition parties, including PML-N of exiled former Premier Nawaz Sharif, to oppose the military ruler.
A defiant Musharraf hit back at Bhutto indicating that she may not be allowed to become Prime Minister for a third time.
— PTI
