Hopes for a compromise between the Pakistani government and its protesting opponents faded today with President Asif Ali Zardari refusing to cave in to pressure, a senior government official said.
A protest campaign by lawyers and opposition parties for an independent judiciary threatens to bring turmoil to nuclear-armed Pakistan as its year-old civilian government struggles to stem surging Islamist militancy and to revive a flagging economy.
Prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has been promoting a compromise package involving concessions to the main opposition party, led by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, and the judiciary.
But President Zardari, widower of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, was standing firm, at least until after the climax early next week of a nationwide "long march" protest by lawyers and opposition activists. "From what I know, President Zardari has made it clear: 'I am not going to negotiate under pressure. Mr Sharif has to abandon the long march'," said a senior government official, who declined to be identified.
The News newspaper said Zardari had rejected a compromise package backed by the United States and Britain, whose top diplomats have consulted both sides in recent days.
President Zardari would only consider the reconciliation formula after Monday, when the long march is due to climax with a sit-in outside parliament in Islamabad, the newspaper said.
If the crisis gets out of hand, the army, which has ruled for more than half the country's 61 years of history, could feel compelled to intervene in some way, though most analysts say a military takeover is highly unlikely.
Police have detained hundreds of lawyers and opposition activists since a crackdown was launched on Wednesday in a bid to stifle the protest. Nevertheless, black-suited lawyers and flag-waving activists launched the protest in the cities of Karachi and Quetta on Thursday, aiming to head to Islamabad, picking up support along the way.
But authorities have effectively broken up the planned procession with the detentions, bans on rallies and road blocks. Police detained some activists trying to form a protest in the city of Multan on Saturday while several hundred lawyers gathered at the city's bar association, witnesses said.
Despite the crack down, the protesters have vowed to press on with rallies in Lahore tomorrow and Islamabad on Monday.
Their main demand is the reinstatement of former Supreme Court chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, who was dismissed in 2007 by the then president and army chief Pervez Musharraf. President Zardari has refused to reinstate the judge, seeing him as a threat to his own position.
Army chief General Ashfaq Kayani, an avowed constitutionalist, met both President Zardari and Mr Gilani yesterday. Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the American PBS network, he doubted Gen Kayani would intervene.
Reuters