Musharraf ordered to free activists

With the capital under a tight security lockdown, Pakistan’s chief justice issued a sharp rebuke Thursday to President Pervez Musharraf, ordering the government to release scores of opposition figures rounded up in recent days.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry’s order came as Musharraf gave formal notice of his intention to seek reelection as president, and as the Supreme Court prepared to rule on whether he could run for office while holding the post of army chief.

Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup, has promised to relinquish his military role if he wins a five-year term as president in the Oct. 6 vote by national and provincial assemblies. His aides have said that if he loses, for whatever reason, he will remain army chief.

Opposition groups had vowed to stage massive protests Thursday to physically prevent Musharraf’s reelection papers from being filed. But authorities blocked all roads leading to the capital, Islamabad, triggering massive traffic jams as workers tried to reach their jobs and students headed to school.

“Why, why, why?” asked trader Ashfaq Akram, who was turned back at a police barricade after attempting to reach Islamabad from the nearby city of Rawalpindi. “If we are prevented even from going to our jobs, it seems to me that they have lost all authority.”

Riot police in this normally tranquil capital also erected barricades and barbed wire to seal off streets surrounding the Election Commission building, where the nomination papers were filed. Musharraf did not appear for the filing; he sent Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.

Also blocked off was the area around the high court, which is expected to hand down a landmark decision today on whether Musharraf is eligible to seek another term while holding his military post. Lawyers in somber black suits, barred from arriving by vehicle, trudged along the broad avenue leading to the court, mopping their foreheads.

The opposition’s threat to disrupt the filing of nomination papers triggered the arrests of scores of party activists beginning last week. The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, in rare criticism of the Pakistani leader, an ally of the Bush administration, called the roundup “extremely disturbing.”

The Pakistani government said it would abide by the chief justice’s order to release the opposition figures. About 50 activists, including several prominent leaders, were released after the order, but party officials said hundreds of lower-level members remained in jail.

Musharraf’s government has said it will accept the court’s ruling on his eligibility to run for office. But many observers and analysts have said that they do not believe the general will yield if disqualified, and fear that if the court verdict goes against him, he may impose emergency rule or martial law.

The Pakistani leader earlier this month showed his willingness to defy the high court when he deported former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who flew to Pakistan on Sept. 10 after seven years in exile. The deportation came in spite of the court’s order that the government allow Sharif to return unimpeded.

Musharraf, 64, whose standing was greatly eroded when he tried this year to fire Chaudhry, is also engaged in delicate dealings with former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. She plans to return to Pakistan on Oct. 18 to contest parliamentary elections.

The two camps tried for months to reach a power-sharing deal, but Bhutto says she will return regardless of whether there is one in place.

Among the other presidential candidates submitting notice to run were Wajihuddin Ahmed, a former Supreme Court justice nominated by a lawyers group that has spearheaded demands for a return to civilian rule, and Makhdoom Amin Fahim, the vice chairman of Bhutto’s party, though he said his candidacy was not yet finalized.

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laura.king@latimes.com