Pakistan police beat up lawyers

Pakistan police beat up lawyers

Police have baton-charged a rally by Pakistani lawyers protesting outside the High Court in Karachi against the state of emergency, lawyers say.
They made many arrests after breaking up the demonstration, news agencies were told by members of the judiciary.

Jamaat-e-Islami, the main Islamic party, says hundreds of its members were arrested overnight in the regions.

President Pervez Musharraf declared the emergency on Saturday, saying he was acting to curb extremism.

The Supreme Court had been due to decide on the legality of General Musharraf's re-election last month.

'Merciless' attack

"Police beat lawyers with batons as they came to the High Court in the morning," Akhtar Hussain, a former president of the Sindh High Court Bar Association, told Reuters news agency.

"Many of them have been arrested."

EMERGENCY RESTRICTIONS
Constitutional safeguards on life and liberty curtailed
Police get wide powers of arrest
Suspects can be denied access to lawyers
Freedom of movement restricted
Private TV stations taken off air
New rules curtail media coverage of suicide bombings or militant activity
Chief justice replaced, others made to swear oath of loyalty
Supreme Court banned from rescinding emergency order


In pictures: Emergency rule
Declaration: Full text
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Senior lawyer Akhtar Hussain told the AFP news agency that police had detained "some 50 lawyers" and "whisked them away in waiting vans".

Police also "mercilessly beat" half a dozen lawyers who were chanting anti-government slogans at a court in the city of Rawalpindi, lawyer Mudassir Saeed told AFP.

Lawyers had called for a nationwide strike as well as public protests on Monday but the BBC's Barbara Plett reports from Islamabad that there has been very little activity on the streets.

Responding to reports of the crackdown on Jamaat-e-Islami, Information Minister Tariq Azim described the claim of hundreds of detentions as an exaggeration.

He told the BBC that it was up to protesters to remain calm, or deal with the consequences.

"If people take law into their [own] hands, obviously, they have to be dealt with," he told The World Today.

Concern abroad

The US has said it will review its multi-billion dollar aid package to Pakistan in the light of the state of emergency.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stressed that some aid was directly linked to tackling al-Qaeda and Taleban militants - a major US priority.

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West faces new dilemma

The UK, another major donor, says it is examining whether the emergency will affect its aid to Pakistan.

Islamabad has suggested parliamentary polls scheduled for January could be delayed by up to a year.

As well as hundreds of arrests of opponents of the government, rights have been suspended and media restricted.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said the emergency would last for "as long as is necessary".

'Decisive' opposition

Gen Musharraf says he declared the emergency to stop Pakistan "committing suicide", because the country was in a crisis caused by militant violence and an unruly judiciary.


Fears had been growing in the government that the Supreme Court could rule against Gen Musharraf over his eligibility to run for re-election.

Benazir Bhutto, a political rival of Gen Musharraf, told US TV channel ABC News that many people believed the emergency was aimed at "stopping a court verdict that was coming against him".