UPDATED: The Latest on the Long March in Pakistan

UPDATE (8:30 p.m. GMT): Some of those detained by Pakistani security forces, including Munir Malik, have now been released.

Meanwhile, there is some intriguing political manoeuvring between the Zardari Government and the US. In a pointed signal that Washington was keeping its options open, US Ambassador Anne Patterson met with Nawaz Sharif on Thursday. Then US envoy Richard Holbrooke joined Patterson and President Zardari in a 20-minute phone conversation and "expressed concern over the political turmoil and arrest of political and lawyers....[The] US wanted continuity of democracy in Pakistan so that war against terrorism could be taken to its logical end." Holbrooke urged Zardari to "show restraint" in his handling of the political opposition.

The Long March, organised by lawyers to protest against the policies of the Zardari Government and its interference with the judiciary, began this afternoon in several Pakistan cities. It started in Lahore just over a half-hour after its start time of 12 noon, with 500 lawyers moving toward the High Court. They were soon joined by another 500 peoples, including some with the flags of the Pakistan Muslim League (N), the party of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and Jamaat-i-Islami, the oldest religious party in Pakistan.

Later in the afternoon, another group of about 2000 protestors began moving from Karachi to Islamabad. The march was led by the lawyers’ movement, including former Supreme Court Bar Association president Munir A. Malik and Sindh High Court Bar Association President Rasheed A. Rizvi, but also includes students and party members from PML (N), Jamaat-i-Islami, and Labour.

Malik, Rizvi, and several other march leaders were detained just over an hour later, and other arrests followed. The total detained is now estimated at 100, and police have baton-charged the marchers. Others have had their bus and car keys confiscated, stranding them at Karachi Toll Plaza.

Comments

[Bilal Sarwari]

If we look at the history of long march many nations use it, its only Pakistan government which creating problems, we have right to fight if our leaders are doing against rules and regulations