Islamabad - Pakistan's most influential Islamist political
party on Monday announced it will join former premier Nawaz Sharif's
protest march against a court ban on his candidacy and for the
reinstatement of the deposed Supreme Court chief justice.
'We will fully participate in the long march,' Jamaat-e-Islami
chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed told reporters at a joint press conference
with Sharif in Lahore, the capital of Pakistan's eastern province of
Punjab.
The Supreme Court last week upheld an earlier high court verdict
that banned Sharif and his brother, Shahbaz, from parliamentary post
because of a previous conviction.
The court decision also removed Shahbaz from the seat of chief
minister of Punjab, the richest and populous province in Pakistan.
Sharif has asked the nation to stand up to the pro-Western
government of President Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of assassinated
former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, accusing Zardari of influencing
the court judgment to remove him from active politics.
'These are defining moments. The entire nation has to come out (on
the streets),' Sharif said on Monday.
The alliance with the Islamist group is likely to boost the
protests by Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party that
continues to stage countrywide agitations since last week, blocking
main roads and closing markets, particularly in Punjab, the PML-N's
stronghold.
The development has raised concern in Western capitals that
internal political turmoil might divert Pakistan's attention away
from fighting Taliban and al-Qaeda militants.
Zardari and Sharif earlier forged an alliance after trouncing the
political supporters of former military strongman Pervez Musharraf in
February 2008 elections.
But they parted ways after six months over Zardari's reluctance to
reinstate deposed top judge Iftikhar Chaudhry, who was removed by
Musharraf.
Sharif said Zardari was not reinstating Chaudhry as he feared that
the independent-minded adjudicator would reverse a controversial
National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) by Musharraf, which cleared
Zardari of graft charges.
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