More Pakistan protestors turned away by police

Pakistan’s opposition leader predicted President Asif Ali Zardari would not last his full five-year term in office as police today turned away another convoy of protesters trying to reach the capital Islamabad for a major anti-government demonstration.

Authorities have detained several hundred political activists and lawyers in recent days, seeking to thwart a protest movement that is challenging the government’s shaky one-year rule just as the West wants to see Pakistan unite and fight against al-Qaida and Taliban extremists.

Activist lawyers are demanding Mr Zardari fulfil a pledge to reinstate judges fired by former President Pervez Musharraf, a general who ousted current opposition leader Nawaz Sharif as prime minister in a 1999 coup.

The protest movement heated up last month when the Supreme Court banned Mr Sharif and his brother from elected office.

After the ruling, the federal government dismissed the Punjab provincial administration led by Mr Sharif’s brother, stoking anger in Pakistan’s most populous region and putting the pair and their supporters on a collision course with Mr Zardari.

Mr Sharif – a seasoned political campaigner who is seen as closer to Pakistan’s conservative Islamist forces than Mr Zardari – told a local TV station he did not want to destabilise the government, but again appealed for Mr Zardari to reinstate the judges.

By resisting that demand, Mr Zardari was “shortening his political life”, he said, adding: “I don’t think he will be able to complete his five years.”