Islamabad: Authorities in Pakistan's Punjab province have banned public gatherings, a government official said on Wednesday, the day before a planned protest march by lawyers that could challenge the year-old government.
"It has been done to maintain law and order, so from now there's a ban on all sorts of processions, protests and congregations for one month," senior provincial interior department official, Farhan Aziz Khawaja, told Reuters.
Anti-government lawyers backed by opposition parties are due to launch a cross-country protest convoy, which is being called as a long march, on Thursday in the southern provinces of Sindh and Baluchistan.
They are pressing for the reappointment of a former Supreme Court chief justice who then army chief and president Pervez Musharraf dismissed in 2007. Their convoy of cars and buses is due to reach Punjab on Friday, when they aim to begin a sit-in outside Parliament in Islamabad on Monday.
Late Tuesday, Rao Iftikhar, the home secretary of Punjab, said he had issued orders for a ban on public gatherings there "so that terrorists cannot take any advantage by targeting political gatherings." The ban will remain in force for three months, he said.
The lawyers, in league with opposition parties which can mobilise their supporters, pose a significant challenge to the civilian government of President Asif Ali Zardari, who has refused to reappoint the former chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry.
The looming showdown comes as Pakistan is battling surging militant violence and a sinking economy. The crisis could lead to political deadlock and even some form of intervention by the country's powerful military, which have often seized power in the past following chaotic civilian rule.
(With inputs from Reuters and AP. )
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