Thousands of anti-government protesters led by Pakistan's former prime minister fought battles with the police on the streets of Lahore yesterday. Army troops were put on the alert ahead of a planned sit-in demonstration outside parliament in Islamabad today.The sit-in poses an open challenge to president Asif Ali Zardari, who faces a deepening political crisis alongside an insurgency by Islamist militants. The clashes have raised fears that today's demonstration may lead to violence in the national capital. Yesterday, police surrounded the home of Nawaz Sharif, the former prime minister, in Lahore, putting him under house arrest for three days and detained scores of other leaders of his Pakistan Muslim League, said party spokesman Pervez Rashid. But Mr Sharif defied house arrest to lead his supporters through the streets of the provincial capital of Punjab, Pakistan's most populous and politically powerful province.
Analysts warn that the growing tide of civil unrest could overwhelm Mr Zardari, who has so far chosen crackdown over conciliation.
In Lahore, opposition protesters and lawyers hurled stones at riot police. The police responded with batons and tear gas.
"Events in Lahore have made the government's position extremely untenable. Either the government has to yield to demands from lawyers and the opposition or face a much bigger challenge," said Lieutenant General (retired) Talat Masood, a prominent commentator.
Mr Zardari faces opposition from two different quarters - one from the legal establishment and the other from his political rivals in the province of Punjab. These forces have united to form a forbidding civil disobedience movement that the inexperienced president has struggled to tame by either negotiation or force.
Two years after Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry became a heroic figure for refusing to step down and meet the demand of Pakistan's last military ruler, the former chief justice of the Supreme Court is again at the centre of Pakistan's latest political storm.
Mr Zardari is fearful of a reconstituted Supreme Court that might strip him of his Musharraf-era presidential powers and immunity from prosecution for past corruption charges.
"Pakistan has had a long history of judges and politicians who have easily succumbed to pressure from their rulers, including generals. Iftikhar Chaudhry's decision however to say 'no' to these rulers made him an exceptional figure," says Ashtar Ausaf Ali, a prominent lawyer. "Our people were waiting for a messiah for a very long time. In him [Mr Chaudhry] lies the hope of a saviour to establish rule of Pakistanin Pakistan."
Mr Chaudhry's cause has received added momentum with support from Mr Sharif, now leader of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz. A decision by the supreme court last month to disqualify the former prime minister from political contests prompted Mr Sharif and the PML-N to throw support behind the lawyers' protests.
The move was a clever one. In a stroke, Mr Sharif transformed what appeared a narrow interest lawyers' dispute into a wider political protest movement against the largely ineffective rule of Mr Zardari's Pakistan People's party.
Mr Sharif's opponents are critical of his motives, as much as his tactics to encourage lawlessness. They say he has joined the lawyers' protest to gain political mileage rather than being driven by a genuine commitment to judicial independence. Members of Mr Sharif's party stormed the Supreme Court building in Islamabad in 1997, while he was serving as prime minister.
"How can Nawaz Sharif be a friend of the cause of rule of law and judicial independence? Have we all forgotten his history," asks a senior government minister.
But just as few Pakistanis want sharia law imposed across the country, few see any benefit from heightened political instability that could unseat the PPP government. A heavy-handed response to today's protests could bring that day closer.
More reports and analysis, www.ft.com/pakistan
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