Asif Ali Zardari is forced to leave Pakistan

Pakistani security forces have stormed a plane carrying opposition leader Asif Ali Zardari and detained him as he arrived in the country, witnesses told CNN. Zardari was taken to his home, where government and police authorities said he was in "protective custody." Earlier, the government had vowed to block any rallies by Zardari's &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/world/2001/06/13/7589.html ' target=_blank>Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and effectively sealed off the city while awaiting his arrival, with about 12,000 police deployed. In the hours following Zardari's detention, however, tensions appeared to be decreasing in Pakistan, tells CNN News. The Pakistani authorities' crackdown will raise fresh questions about the military leader's commitment to democracy and tolerance of political opponents. Late Friday, top PPP leaders were arrested as they held a meeting at a house in Lahore, police and a party official said. Information Minister &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/world/2001/11/26/21977.html ' target=_blank>Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said the party officials and activists would soon be freed and denied that Zardari had been arrested. PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar told AP that although police has not arrested Zardari, other party leaders who arrived with him from Dubai had been taken into custody. At least 200 other PPP supporters who started chanting slogans and waving party flags on the road from the airport to the house were beaten by police and taken away in police vans. ARY television reported that police at the airport manhandled journalists who traveled with Zardari from &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/fun/2001/09/08/14497.html ' target=_blank>Dubai, snatching away their cameras. Bhutto, who was twice elected prime minister, is opposed to Musharraf's rule. Both her governments were dismissed because of allegations of corruption and misrule. Zardari was jailed in 1996 after Bhutto's second government was dismissed. Zardari's release on bail in December was seen as a possible sign of rapprochement between Bhutto and Musharraf, who share a pro-Western outlook. Yet Musharraf's relations with the main opposition parties remain frosty. After seizing power in a military coup in 1999, Musharraf held elections in late 2002 but he has failed to resign as army chief as promised. NR

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