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Hundreds of Sharif party activists arrested

Islamabad: In a crackdown on the exiled former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s political party, the police have arrested hundreds of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) activists in Lahore and Rawalpindi near here.

A senior police officer said several PML-N leaders and activists, who might disrupt law and order in the country by organising a reception for the deposed Premier on his return home next week, have been taken into custody. “Raids are being carried out across the country to arrest hundreds of other activists,” media reports said, quoting the unnamed officer.

PML-N’s Punjab secretary general Raja Ashfaq Sarwar told the media: “Police have arrested the party’s Punjab additional information secretary Ilyas Rabbani from his residence and 50 other activists.” Mr. Sarwar said the police were targeting those leaders who are planning to accord Mr. Sharif and his brother Shahbaz Sharif a grand reception on their arrival in Pakistan.

“The PML-N’s district presidents and secretaries have been made district coordinators and coordination committee secretaries, respectively, to arrange the receptions in their constituencies,” he said.

Nearly two million party members would go to Islamabad in a display of the party’s strength on September 10, Mr. Sarwar said.

Mr. Sharif has declared that he would return to Pakistan next week, after the Supreme Court allowed him and his brother to come back after seven years in “forced” exile.

Meanwhile, negotiators trying to thrash out a power-sharing deal between Gen. Musharraf and the self-exiled former Premier Benazir Bhutto made some progress on Tuesday, her party said.

Talks held in London last week between the two sides ended in deadlock, with Ms. Bhutto saying she would fly home ahead of the general elections. — Agencies

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