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World Pakistan Top opposition leaders held in Pakistan

Other News Materials 23 September 2007 12:47 (UTC +04:00)

( Gulfnews ) President Gen. Pervez Musharraf is "desperate" to crush his critics, an opposition leader said Sunday, after police detained several senior members of an alliance trying to obstruct the military ruler's pursuit of another term in office.

Police swept the Pakistani capital late on Saturday, arresting at least four senior figures in the opposition coalition, the All Parties Democratic Movement, which has announced its lawmakers will resign from Parliament to deny legitimacy to Musharraf's re-election.

A presidential vote by federal and provincial legislators is scheduled for Oct. 6. The opposition claims Musharraf is not constitutionally qualified to run while he still holds the powerful position of army chief. Musharraf has offered to resign his military post, but only after he is voted in as president .

Security officials said police in Islamabad had orders to take some 35 opposition leaders into preventive custody _ many of them linked to Nawaz Sharif , the prime minister overthrown by Musharraf in a 1999 coup, or a coalition of Islamist parties opposed to the president's alliance with the United States.

" Musharraf has now become desperate to crush the opposition in order to unconstitutionally and illegally become president for another term," said Ahsan Iqbal , spokesman for Sharif's party, a key member of the opposition alliance.

Iqbal said many senior opposition leaders, including himself , have gone into hiding.

Police served a warrant on Javed Hashmi , acting president of Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N, at an apartment complex for lawmakers on Saturday. The warrant said he would be jailed for 30 days to stop him from making inflammatory speeches at protests where "miscreants" could "cause disruption and acts of sabotage and terrorism."

"They are ruling the country with the gun in hand," Hashmi told an AP reporter at his apartment, where four armed police stood guard outside. "They think that the (military) uniform, not the people of Pakistan, are the source of power."

Raja Zafarul Haq , chairman of Sharif's party, was detained, as were Hafiz Hussain Ahmed and Mian Mohammed Aslam , lawmakers from a religious coalition opposed to Musharraf .

The sweep mirrored tactics used to ensure no crowds turned out to welcome Sharif when he tried to return from exile on Sept. 10. Hundreds of opposition activists were briefly

jailed to prevent them reaching Islamabad airport. Sharif was swiftly expelled to Saudi Arabia.

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