(14 Mar 2009) SHOTLIST
1. Wide pan from crowd to Nawaz Sharif, opposition Pakistan Muslim League-N party leader, on stage addressing party members
2. Sharif waving
3. SOUNDBITE (Urdu) Nawaz Sharif, Leader of Pakistan Muslim League-N:
"Even if obstacles are placed in the way of Nawaz Sharif, this Long March shall still reach its ultimate destination. No one can stop this Long March. You must join together with Nawaz Sharif."
4. Sharif exiting stage
5. Various shots of police cordoning off Sharif's residence
STORYLINE:
Pakistan's government has placed opposition leader Nawaz Sharif under house arrest to stop him taking part in an anti-government rally.
Sharif's spokesman Pervez Rasheed says hundreds of police surrounded his house on Sunday in the eastern city of Lahore.
He says they showed Sharif aides a detention order stipulating Sharif was to be placed under house arrest for three days.
There was no immediate word from Pakistani authorities about the move.
The nuclear-armed nation lurched toward turmoil last month when the Supreme Court disqualified Sharif and his brother from elected office.
On Saturday Sharif had vowed to go ahead with mass protests planned for Monday in the capital, even as the government insisted it would enforce a ban.
"Even if obstacles are placed in the way of Nawaz Sharif, this Long March shall still reach its ultimate destination," he told a crowd in Lahore.
President Asif Ali Zardari deepened the crisis by dismissing the provincial administration in Punjab, which had been led by Sharif's brother and was his party's only foothold in Pakistan's patronage-based political system.
Sharif, a former prime minister, then threw his weight behind planned protests by lawyers calling for an independent judiciary which authorities have vowed to thwart.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton expressed concern about the crisis in phone calls with both Zardari and Sharif on Saturday, officials said.
Hours later, the government announced it would appeal the Supreme Court ruling in the coming week.
The government has vowed to prevent the protest in Islamabad, raising the likelihood of violent clashes that could cast the country into turmoil just a year after democratic elections ended years of military rule.
Authorities have blocked the main boulevard leading to Parliament with metal shipping containers and say they also have to protect nearby foreign embassies.
The area is already a high-security zone.
Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]
You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
