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Deadlock in Pakistan as Talks Stall Between Premier and His Foes
Pakistani Opposition Clashes With the Police
(about 2 hours later)
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan remained in a political deadlock over the weekend as negotiations stalled between the beleaguered government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his opponents, who have been demanding his resignation.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Clashes broke out in the Pakistani capital on Saturday night after thousands of protesters led by two opposition leaders tried to march toward the residence of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Mr. Sharif said Saturday that he would not resign and called the demands to do so by his opponents “unacceptable” and “unconstitutional.” Negotiators from Mr. Sharif’s government and two leading opposition parties who have organized separate protests in Islamabad, the capital, since Aug. 15, were meeting late Saturday, with both sides appearing unwilling to soften their positions.
The two opposition leaders, Imran Khan, a charismatic former cricket star, and Muhammad Tahir-ul Qadri, an influential cleric, said they planned to protest outside the prime minister’s home, which is on a hill overlooking the capital. Armed with sticks and batons, many wearing gas masks, the protesters tried to break through police cordons and attempted to remove shipping containers, which had blocked a road leading to the prime minister’s house, with the help of a big crane.
Speaking to reporters in Lahore, the eastern city where he has his power base and spends his weekends, Mr. Sharif predicted that the protests would end in a few days. Mr. Sharif is expected to address the nation in the coming days, aides said.
Thousands of protesters have been camping out in Islamabad since two leading opposition politicians, Mr. Khan and Mr. Qadri, an influential cleric, led two separate marches on the capital from Lahore. They have been demanding Mr. Sharif’s resignation and the dissolution of the national and provincial assemblies. Mr. Khan is demanding new elections; Mr. Qadri wants an interim unity government to run the country as well as ambitious economic and political overhauls.
Thousands of protesters have been camping out in Islamabad since two leading opposition politicians, Imran Khan and Muhammad Tahir-ul Qadri, an influential cleric, led two separate marches on the capital from Lahore. They have been demanding Mr. Sharif’s resignation and the dissolution of the national and provincial assemblies. Mr. Khan is demanding new elections; Mr. Qadri wants an interim unity government to run the country as well as ambitious economic and political overhauls.
The government has agreed to consider changes to the country’s contentious electoral system and initiate an independent investigation into allegations of rigging in last year’s general elections, one of Mr. Khan’s criticisms of Mr. Sharif. But ruling party members say their opponents need to drop their demands for Mr. Sharif’s resignation.
The government has agreed to consider changes to the country’s contentious electoral system and initiate an independent investigation into allegations of rigging in last year’s general elections, one of Mr. Khan’s criticisms of Mr. Sharif.
Mr. Sharif said Saturday that he would not resign and called the demands to do so by his opponents “unacceptable” and “unconstitutional.”
But ruling party members say their opponents need to drop their demands for Mr. Sharif’s resignation.
The march on Saturday came after talks broke down between the government and representatives of Mr. Khan and Mr. Qadri.
“Imran Khan and Tahir-ul Qadri need to give up on the idea of resignations,” Marvi Memon, a member of the National Assembly from the Pakistan Muslim League party, said in an interview. “It is not happening.”
“Nawaz Sharif should step down as prime minister to take the country out of this deadlock,” said Shah Mehmood Qureshi, a senior leader of Mr. Khan’s political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf, while talking to local news media Saturday late Saturday evening. “We want to break the political impasse. The sticking point is prime minister’s resignation.”
Mr. Khan, a charismatic former cricket player who enjoys passionate support among his followers, has claimed that Mr. Sharif rigged general elections in May 2013 with the help of the judiciary and the interim government that oversaw the voting. He insists that Mr. Sharif must step aside, even for just a month, until an investigation is completed. He reiterated this demand Saturday afternoon as he spoke to supporters at the protest site.
Before charging toward the heavily guarded government building, both Mr. Khan and Mr. Qadri said that their supporters would remain peaceful. “I am a decent man,” Mr. Qadri said in a speech to his supporters. “I have been fighting for peace. I have lived for peace. I will die for peace. There will be no violence at all,” he said. Mr. Khan warned security forces not to stop the marchers from assembling outside the prime minister’s residence.
Ms. Memon said Mr. Khan and Mr. Qadri were “wasting everyone’s time with their unconstitutional demands.”
But violence soon erupted after some protesters tried to enter the premises of the presidency, which is nearby, and clashed with police; according to some local news media reports, the first tear-gas canisters were deployed by security forces deployed inside the premier’s official residence. Police officers wielding batons charged the crowd to disperse the protesters. There were also news reports about the use of rubber bullets that could not be independently verified.
But the two-week-long protest has crippled any sense of normalcy in the capital. Army troops have been stationed at important government buildings amid fears that protesters will try to storm them.
Several protesters were seen throwing stones at the police with sling shots. The barrage of tear-gas canisters sent the protesters scrambling for cover as Constitution Avenue, in front of Mr. Sharif’s house, was enveloped in a clouds smoke.
On Saturday, small antigovernment protests broke out in several other cities around Pakistan. No violence was reported.
Rescue workers said at least 70 people, including 20 police officials, were wounded and moved to hospitals in the capital.
Mr. Khan’s supporters — who are mostly young men and women from the middle and upper-middle classes — have been gathering for protests every evening outside Parliament. Mr. Qadri’s supporters, perhaps, present a more formidable challenge to the government. Thousands of his die-hard supporters, who tend to be less affluent and from small towns, including men, women and even children, have braved scorching heat and heavy rains in a permanent encampment outside the Parliament building. Armed with batons and sticks against feared attacks from security forces, some of his supporters have wrapped themselves in coffin shrouds and say they want “martyrdom or revolution.”
Khawaja Muhammad Asif, the Pakistani defense minister, said the government was compelled to use force after protesters tried to storm important buildings that symbolized the state.
Last week, Mr. Sharif sought the help of the country’s powerful military to defuse the crisis. But in meetings with the chief of the army, Gen. Raheel Sharif, who is not related to the prime minister, both Mr. Khan and Qadri stuck to their demands for Mr. Sharif’s resignation. The military says it has been asked to play the role of a “facilitator” by the government.
“They violated the last line that we had drawn,” Mr. Asif said. “Negotiations cannot go on when a gun is pointed at our temples.”
It remains unclear how willing the military is to salvage Mr. Sharif’s sinking public image. Mr. Sharif has a turbulent history with the powerful military and has clashed with three army chiefs in his three stints in power. Ms. Memon called reports in the international news media that the military was pressuring Mr. Sharif on issues such as foreign policy and internal security “baseless.”
Mr. Khan condemned the use of force by the police and urged his followers across the country to take to the streets on Sunday in protest.
