Pakistan's sacked law chief calls for 'sacrifice' from protesters

The sacked head of Pakistan’s Supreme Court today called on the country to rise up against President Pervez Musharraf.

Former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, under house arrest after being removed from his post when the president imposed emergency rule on Saturday, called on lawyers to defy police.

“Go to every corner of Pakistan and give the message that this is the time to sacrifice. 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.”

He spoke as lawyers again clashed with riot police. In the central city of Multan hundreds of police blocked about 1,000 lawyers from leaving a district court complex for a street rally. Both sides pelted each other with stones and police used batons to disperse the crowd.

The clashes marked the second day of unrest since gen Musharraf, who took power in a 1999 coup, declared the emergency and suspended the current constitution.

He sacked independent-minded judges, put a stranglehold on the media and granted sweeping powers to authorities to crush dissent.

Many saw it as a last-ditch effort to cling to power, coming ahead of a Supreme Court ruling on whether his recent re-election as president was legal.

Opposition groups say about 3,500 people have been arrested so far, although government officials put the figure around 2,500. Most are lawyers, although opposition party supporters and rights activists have also been arrested.

The authoritarian measures have drawn widespread international criticism, although so far only the Netherlands has punished Pakistan, freezing most of its development aid.

The US, Pakistan’s chief foreign supporter, says it is reviewing aid but appeared unlikely to cut assistance to a close ally in its war on terror. Both President Bush and British foreign secretary David Miliband urged gen Musharraf to resign as army chief and hold parliamentary elections in January as originally planned.

Gen Musharraf has promised to restore democracy, but there did not appear to be a unified position among senior Pakistan government officials on when elections would be held.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said he would chair a Cabinet meeting later today to try to produce the date.

Thousands have turned out to protest the state of emergency that was imposed on Saturday but demonstrations so far have been limited largely to opposition activists, rights workers and lawyers, angered by the attacks on the judiciary.

Lawyers were the driving force behind protests earlier this year when gen Musharraf tried unsuccessfully to fire Mr Chaudhry.

Gen Musharraf also moved quickly to control the media. Police raided and briefly sealed a printing press belonging to Pakistan’s largest media group. Broadcasts by independent news networks remained blocked, and domestic transmissions of BBC and CNN were cut.

Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, meanwhile, was expected to travel from Karachi for Islamabad later today and meet other opposition parties tomorrow.

Ms Bhutto, who has held inconclusive talks on forging an alliance with gen Musharraf to fight Islamic extremism, narrowly escaped a massive suicide bombing in Karachi last month that killed 145.