Pakistan locks up hundreds in bid to silence protests

Hundreds of lawyers and opponents of the government were behind bars last night after the authorities in Pakistan launched a widespread crackdown on the eve of a protest march.

All major roads into the capital were blocked while numerous activists and politicians – the former cricketer Imran Khan among them – went into hiding.

In a move compared to the authoritarian tactics used by the former president Pervez Musharraf, police carried out pre-dawn raids across Punjab province and used British colonial-era legislation to impose a ban on any gatherings of more than four people.

The government said it was acting to protect Islamabad from thousands of lawyers who plan to march into the city to demand that the former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry be reinstated.

Many will consider the tactics little more than a pre-emptive strike against the government's political opponents, particularly against the supporters of the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who supports the march.

The move creates more turmoil for Pakistan, which is already struggling with a deadly threat from extremists and a floundering economy.

The lawyers vowed their march – due to reach Islamabad on 16 March – would not be stopped. Atizaz Ahsan, one of the march leaders, said from an undisclosed location: "A movement that has survived baton charges, tear gas, mass arrests, and bomb blasts is not going to peter out.

"Even if the long march is obstructed, what will the government do if we call for another long march in 15 days, and another 15 days after that?"

Reports said about 300 people had been arrested, the bulk of them low-level activists from Mr Sharif's party, Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N).

Journalists and rights activists were also seized. Tahira Abdullah, 50, a women's rights campaigner, was released after a government minister intervened. "It is a sad day for Pakistan when the people who marched with us for democracy against the dictatorships of General Zia-ul-Haq and General Musharraf arrest human rights activists," she said.

When police arrived at Imran Khan's house at 2.30am, they were told he had left. Mr Khan said from hiding that the move was "typical of a panic-striken leadership who are petrified of an independent judiciary".

"They are scared because they have plundered this country... [and] that if there's an independent justice system, their cases will be seized, and they will be behind bars for corruption."

It is almost two years since Mr Musharraf fired Mr Chaudhry, a move that ultimately led to the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) securing power in parliamentary elections last February and Mr Musharaf resigning in August.

Mr Sharif and Benazir Bhutto's widower, Asif Ali Zardari, joined forces to form government but Mr Sharif resigned after Mr Zardari reneged on an agreement to re-instate Mr Chaudhry.

Tensions between the parties escalated last month after the Supreme Court ruled the election of Mr Sharif's brother, Shahbaz, as the chief minister of Punjab last year was invalid. The ruling banned Mr Sharif from standing for elected office and brought down the provincial government. The central government took control.

The Sharifs have since taken to the streets across the province, calling for demonstrations against the government and gathering support for its demand to reinstate Mr Chaudhry.

Critics of Mr Zardari, who is now the President, say he fears Mr Chaudhry may re-examine corruption allegations against him if reinstated.

Last night, Mr Sharif said: "This is the time to come on the streets and join the protesting lawyers tomorrow. Don't come for me, come for your country."

The irony that Mr Zardari's PPP is now locking up its opponents as Mr Musharraf did to PPP activists has not been lost on analysts.

Rasul Bakhsh Rais, a political scientist in Lahore, said: "It's consistent with Pakistan's tradition that if you are unpopular and delegitimised, that you use the machinery of the state to suppress your political opponents."

The government defended the arrests as a last resort. "No elected government wants to take preventive measures like this," said information minister Sherry Rehman.

"But opposition has clearly asked public officials to rebel and this cannot be allowed by even the most pacifist government."