Rumours of martial law and abrupt announcement of elections echoed across Pakistan on Tuesday as the country’s highest court ordered the arrest of Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashr-af in a corruption case.
As former minister for water and power, Mr Ashraf is accused of receiving kickbacks in rental power projects and various other scams.
“The Supreme Court has ordered the FIA to arrest Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf in the rental power case along with 19 others and present them before the court on Wednesday,” said a court official. President Asif Ali Zardari called a meeting of the allies in Karachi while the Opposition parties demanded the PM resign to save the system.
Mr Ashraf’s Cabinet members denied he would quit. “He will remain Prime Minister. He is only an accused in the case, not a convict,” interior minister Rehman Malik said. Mr Malik’s stance was backed by other ministers who said elections would be held on time (after March 2013) and the PM would stay in charge. “The PM is not going anywhere. The rumours will die down soon,” information minister Qamar Zaman Kaira said. To add fuel to the rumours were thousands of anti-government protesters who have invaded Islamabad since Monday demanding electoral reforms and appointment of a clean caretaker government. The demonstrators threatened to kick the government out if their demands were not met.
The Supreme Court order came as the Tehrik-e-Minhajul Quran (TMQ) chief, Dr Tahirul Qadri, was addressing a mammoth rally in front of Parliament asking the government to quit or be kicked out. Thousands of protesters raised slogans in favour of the SC after the announcement of the order and Dr Qadri ended his address half-way expecting some “big news”.
The right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami demanded the immediate resignation of the PM.
Pakistan’s 65-year history is stained with multiple military takeovers. The last spell of military rule ended only in 2008, when Pervez Musharraf quit power after around nine years.