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Pakistani protests turn violent | |
(about 2 hours later) | |
Thousands of supporters of Pakistan's ex-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif have protested after the courts banned him and his brother from elected office. | |
Streets were blocked off in main cities and businesses and vehicles set alight. | Streets were blocked off in main cities and businesses and vehicles set alight. |
Sharif supporters and police clashed near Rawalpindi, with unconfirmed reports of injuries. | Sharif supporters and police clashed near Rawalpindi, with unconfirmed reports of injuries. |
Mr Sharif accuses President Zardari of influencing the court decision in order to remove him from politics, raising fears of renewed political turmoil. | Mr Sharif accuses President Zardari of influencing the court decision in order to remove him from politics, raising fears of renewed political turmoil. |
The protests are against Wednesday's Supreme Court ruling upholding a ban on Mr Sharif and his brother, Shahbaz, from elected office. | |
Mr Sharif's PML-N holds power in Punjab province, where his brother was chief minister but has now been ordered to step down. | |
Correspondents say the court order is expected to deepen the rift between the Sharifs and the federal government led by the Pakistan People's Party (PPP). | |
Clashes | |
Incidents of violence were reported from all over Punjab province, the Sharif's main power base. There were smaller anti-government protests in the capital, Islamabad. | |
Protesters set vehicles alight and clashed with police | |
Thousands of protesters, waving the green flags of Mr Sharif's PML-N party, burned tyres in the many demonstrations - black smoke billowed into the air. | |
The most serious clashes took place on the outskirts of the garrison city of Rawalpindi. | |
Protesters attacked banks and shops, set vehicles alight and blocked roads. Two of the vehicles set on fire were police vans. | |
Police baton charged the demonstrators and lobbed tear gas shells. Crowds pelted security forces with stones. | |
Earlier, Mr Sharif addressed a rally in the town of Shekhupura in central Punjab. | |
Mr Sharif has accused President Zardari of being behind the ban | |
"Don't break the law, wreck public property or take the law into your own hands," he told his supporters. | |
Mr Sharif said the main cause of Pakistan's current problems emanated from eight years of dictatorship, referring to former president Gen Pervez Musharraf's period in power. | |
Gen Musharraf overthrew Mr Sharif's government in a 1999 military coup, but his supporters were trounced in elections last year and he stood down. | |
Mr Sharif criticised judges appointed by President Musharraf and said he had been "let down" by Mr Zardari, who he forged an alliance with to win the elections. | |
"I put all my trust in him, but he broke my trust," he said. | |
Mr Sharif said as far as he was concerned, his brother Shahbaz Sharif was still the chief minister of Punjab. | |
President Zardari has dismissed the Punjab government and given control to the governor who is one of his loyalists. | |
Earlier, Mr Zardari's prime minister, Yusuf Raza Gillani, caused surprise when he said he had been shocked to learn of the Supreme Court's decision. | |
He said the attorney-general had not taken him into his confidence. | |
Power struggle | |
The Supreme Court ban on the Sharif bothers standing for public office came on Wednesday. | |
It upheld a high court ruling that Mr Sharif was ineligible to stand for parliament because he had been convicted in connection with the 1999 hijacking of a plane carrying Gen Musharraf before his coup. | |
The BBC's Barbara Plett in Islamabad says a power struggle is shaping up between Mr Sharif and Mr Zardari - and weeks, if not months, of demonstrations and political turmoil loom. | |
Observers say the main beneficiary of such tensions may be Pakistan's powerful military, which has a long history of clandestine political involvement and destabilising civilian governments. |