Musharraf faces lawyer protest

Lawyers today vowed to defy a ban on public gatherings and protest when Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf files nomination papers tomorrow to formally make his bid for a new five-year term.

The government said security forces would prevent any disruption as part of a crackdown on opposition protests ahead of next month’s presidential election.

General Musharraf has seen his popularity and power erode since his tried and failed to fire the Supreme Court’s chief justice earlier this year.

Lawyers were at the forefront of mass protests then, claiming the general was illegally interfering in the judiciary.

Many have backed an opposition movement that claims general Musharraf is barred from the October 6 election because he has retained his powerful dual role as army chief.

The Supreme Court is currently considering several legal challenges to his candidacy.

Some of the 17 government lawmakers who have nominated general Musharraf will file election papers on his behalf at the Election Commission in the capital Islamabad.

Elaborate security precautions are being implemented and only official government media will be allowed to cover the proceedings.

The capital’s government also has imposed a ban on gatherings of more than five people.

“God willing, it will be a historic protest,” said Munir Malik, president of the Supreme Court Bar Association.

Asked whether lawyers will try to physically stop Musharraf’s nomination from being filed, Malik said: “We are peaceful people. We have neither a gun nor any weapon. We only have pens and minds.”

Tariq Mahmood, another senior bar member, said the attorneys will protest by shouting slogans and waving their fists – assuming they are not rounded up beforehand or prevented from leaving their homes.

“People have been asked to come,” Mahmood said. “They should come so that there is an expression that we do not approve of what is happening.”

The possible confrontation is the latest twist in a cat-and-mouse game between the general and the opposition.

Meanwhile former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party said yesterday that its vice chairman, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, would contest the election – but only if general Musharraf was barred.

That indicated that the party did not plan to run directly against Musharraf, who has held months-long talks with Bhutto over a possible power-sharing agreement.

With Pakistan facing a growing threat from Taliban and al-Qaida militants, both Ms Bhutto and general Musharraf are calling for moderates to band together to defeat extremism.

Ms Bhutto, who plans to return from self-exile on October 18, wants the president to drop corruption charges against her and lift a bar on her serving a third term as prime minister.