Islamabad: Pakistan's government on Sunday issued orders to put former premier and main opposition PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif under house arrest for three days to prevent him from leading the "long-march" by lawyers and political activists.
Sources were quoted by TV news channels as saying the orders were issued early Sunday morning. There was no official word on the development. However, the whereabouts of Sharif could not immediately be ascertained.
Sharif's brother, former Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, reached Rawalpindi this morning to join the long march but his motorcade was stopped at a police picket.
Reports said he could be detained in the garrison city.
Despite an announcement by the ruling Pakistan People's Party that it would file a review petition challenging the Supreme Court's order barring PML-N leaders Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif from electoral politics, the former premier told his supporters last night that he might be detained to stop him from joining the long march.
"I may be arrested or put under house arrest. But you should try to reach Islamabad," Sharif told hundreds of supporters in Lahore last night.
Nawaz and Shahbaz vowed to continue with the long march. Shahbaz said the PML-N had not been formally informed by the government about the move to file the review petition in the apex court and the nationwide protest would continue.
The lawyers' movement and opposition parties like the PML-N and Jamaat-e-Islami launched the long march on March 12 to pressurise the PPP-led government to restore judges sacked by former President Pervez Musharraf during the 2007 emergency.
The protest is scheduled to culminate with a mass sit-in outside parliament on March 16 but interior ministry chief Rehman Malik has said this will not be allowed due to security concerns.
Police arrested scores of PML-N activists who had gathered at a camp set up outside the Sharifs' residence at Model Town in Lahore, the capital of Punjab province. There were also reports of clashes between the PML-N workers and
policemen.
PML-N leader Saeed Elahi, who held talks with the police, said the authorities had requested Nawaz to put off his plan of joining the long march.
There were also reports that police had put under house arrest several senior PML-N leaders, including Senator Ishaq Dar, parliamentarian Saad Rafiq and Zulfikar Khosa, the chief of the party's unit in Lahore.
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