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Imran’s cancer hospital sealed

LAHORE: The Pakistani police on Friday sealed off a cancer hospital set up by Imran Khan as they sought to track down the cricketer-turned-politician who has escaped arrest under the state of Emergency.

A police official told AFP that police had cordoned off the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital in Lahore “to search for Imran Khan.”

Mr. Khan, who led Pakistan to victory in the 1992 cricket World Cup, went into hiding last Sunday, a day after police placed him under house arrest following President Pervez Musharraf’s imposition of Emergency rule.

“We are still looking for him because we have orders to detain him” under public order legislation, police official Mohammad Omar said.

Mr. Khan’s house was also cordoned off. Mr. Khan, who founded the Movement for Justice Party, said in a statement from hiding that he was in contact with other opposition leaders and “we will soon launch a mass movement against [Gen.] Musharraf.”

He demanded the reinstatement of independent-minded Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudhry, who was sacked by Gen. Musharraf immediately after the state of Emergency was imposed.

“We will continue our struggle,” Mr. Khan told private Geo television later.

A police party led by a judicial magistrate laid siege to the Geo television network after the channel aired an interview with Mr. Khan.

Absar Alam, bureau chief of Geo News in the Pakistani capital, told PTI that the magistrate told him they had come to look for a political leader who was in the office.

“We had interviewed Imran an hour ago. I explained to him that the interview was done with Imran on telephone as he was in an undisclosed location which we didn’t know But the magistrate said they would remain outside the offices,” Mr. Alam said. — PTI

Nirupama Subramanian reports from Lahore:

U.S. Consul-General Bryan Hunt on Friday met Human Rights Commission of Pakistan chairperson Asma Jehangir placed under house arrest and told her his country was committed to free and fair elections in Pakistan.

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