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| Pakistan set to ban Bhutto protest | | | Islamabad | Nov 12
Authorities in Pakistan are set to ban a huge protest march called by opposition leader Benazir Bhutto to demand an immediate end to emergency rule, officials said on Monday.
Government officials and police were to meet to consider banning Tuesday's planned rally from Lahore to Islamabad, and senior police sources said it was unlikely to be allowed.
The so-called "long march" is aimed at piling pressure on President Pervez Musharraf to end the state of emergency, which Bhutto said would make promised general elections by early January meaningless.
"There will be no long march," a senior government official in Punjab, the province which includes Lahore, said.
Raja Basharat, Punjab's law minister, said rallies were forbidden under the state of emergency. "It's a political decision," Lahore police chief Malik Mohammad Iqbal said.
"As far as we are concerned we know the threat (of an attack on the march) is very serious. It is imminent and it is of the highest degree."
Authorities cited fears of violence to place Bhutto under house arrest last Friday and prevent her leading a rally in Rawalpindi. |
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