PAKISTAN: POLICE DETAIN ASIF ALI ZARDARI HUSBAND OF OPPOSITION-LEADER-IN-EXILE BENAZIR BHUTTO AS HE REUTRNS TO LAHORE AFTER VISITING HIS WIFE IN DUBAI
Record ID:
566242
PAKISTAN: POLICE DETAIN ASIF ALI ZARDARI HUSBAND OF OPPOSITION-LEADER-IN-EXILE BENAZIR BHUTTO AS HE REUTRNS TO LAHORE AFTER VISITING HIS WIFE IN DUBAI
- Title: PAKISTAN: POLICE DETAIN ASIF ALI ZARDARI HUSBAND OF OPPOSITION-LEADER-IN-EXILE BENAZIR BHUTTO AS HE REUTRNS TO LAHORE AFTER VISITING HIS WIFE IN DUBAI
- Date: 16th April 2005
- Summary: (BN06)LAHORE, PAKISTAN (APRIL 16, 2005) (REUTERS) (NIGHTSHOTS) 1. WS: EXTERIOR OF LAHORE AIRPORT 0.07 2. SECURITY (2 SHOTS) 0.15 3. VARIOUS OF MEMBERS ASSEMBLY FROM PAKISTAN PEOPLES' PARTY AND SUPPORTERS BEING PREVENTED FROM REACHING AIRPORT BY POLICE (2 SHOTS) 0.33 (DAY SHOTS) 4. SV/SCU: POLICE ARRESTING LEADERS AND SUPPORTERS (2 SHOTS) 0.46 5. LV: PLANE ARRIVING 1.01 6. MORE OF DEMONSTRATIONS AND ARRESTS OF SUPPORTERS (3 SHOTS) 1.23 7. VARIOUS OF WOMEN POLICE BATON CHARGING AND PUSHING FEMALE DEMONSTRATORS (3 SHOTS) 2.01 8. ROAD LEADING TO BILAWAL HOUSE, ASIF ZADARI'S RESIDENCE IN LAHORE BLOCKED 2.06 9. TWO ARMY VEHICLES ON ROAD TO BILAWAL HOUSE 2.11 10. SECURITY AROUND BILAWAL HOUSE 2.16 11. WS: EXTERIOR OF BILAWAL HOUSE, LAHORE 2.21 12. SCU: PPP (PAKISTAN PEOPLES' PARTY) FLAG FLUTTERING ON BILAWAL HOUSE 2.26 13. VARIOUS OF ASIF ZARDARI ARRIVING AT BILAWAL HOUSE AND SUPPORTERS CHANTING SLOGANS (4 SHOTS) 2.49 14. SOUNDBITE (English) ASIF ALI ZARDARI, HUSBAND OF OPPOSITION-LEADER-IN-EXILE BENAZIR BHUTTO, SAYING: "I think the government is absolutely panicked. The whole city is closed. The whole city is under siege, seems like curfew in Lahore. We couldn't see a single car for the plane. (asking journalists) You say, you tell me what is the situation in Lahore. I think there is panic. There is no government. (3.11) SOUNDBITE (Urdu) ASIF ALI ZARDARI, HUSBAND OF OPPOSITION-LEADER-IN-EXILE BENAZIR BHUTTO, SAYING: They are just occupying seats, and they are unable to run the government. They are unable to run the country. How they are going to run the government if they cannot handle a (leader's) welcome" 3.22 15. VARIOUS OF SUPPORTERS CHANTING SLOGANS (3 SHOTS) 3.58 16. SOUNDBITE: (English/Urdu) ZARDARI ZARDARI MEETING AN UNIDENTIFIED PERSON AND THEN SAYING: "The question is not this, that my workers were prevented from coming to Lahore, the question is, that I have arrived here in Pakistan." / ZARDARI LEAVING 4.22 17. VARIOUS OF WORKERS BEING ARRESTED OUTSIDE BILAWAL HOUSE (3 SHOTS) 4.49 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 1st May 2005 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: LAHORE, PAKISTAN
- Country: Pakistan
- Reuters ID: LVA2QHTLEDY1UO06OLDT0D25GI6O
- Story Text: Pakistan police detain Asif Ali Zardari, husband of
opposition-leader-in-exile Benazir Bhutto, on his return to
Pakistan after visiting his wife in Dubai.
Pakistani police boarded an airliner that brought
home the husband of opposition-leader-in-exile Benazir
Bhutto on Saturday (April 16), detaining him and several
aides to prevent them holding a rally.
The detention of Asif Ali Zardari after his plane
landed in the eastern city of Lahore from Dubai appeared to
again dim hopes for political reconciliation in Pakistan,
but police said he had not been arrested and he would be
freed.
However, police had erected barricades around Zardari's
house in Lahore and Zardari himself told Reuters he was not
allowed to leave the house.
"They told me that they are taking me into protective
custody," he told Reuters by telephone. "But since then
they have not told me anything. I can't go out."
Zardari said the government had put the whole city
under siege when he arrived.
"I think the government is absolutely panicked. The
whole city is closed. The whole city is under siege, seems
like curfew in Lahore. We couldn't see a single car for the
plane. (asking journalists) You say, you tell me what is
the situation in Lahore. I think there is panic. There is
no government", Zardari told reporters.
"The question is not this, that my workers were
prevented from coming to Lahore, the question is, that I
have arrived here in Pakistan", he said.
Zardari vowed to lodge a court petition against the
government of Punjab province and complained that about
70,000 supporters of his wife's Pakistan Peoples Party
(PPP) had been detained to prevent them rallying to welcome
him.
Zardari, who was released on bail from eight years'
jail late last year, was returning to Pakistan for the
first time since travelling to visit his wife in Dubai in
December.
Hundreds of police blocked roads to the airport to
prevent Bhutto supporters gathering there and used batons
to disperse about 50, including women, who managed to evade
the cordon.
The Geo TV channel, which had a correspondent
travelling on the DC-9 airliner belonging to private
Pakistani airline Aero Asia said police boarded it after it
landed.
It said among those detained were Makhdoom Amin Fahim,
leader of the PPP's parliamentary wing, and its former
Foreign Minister Sardar Asseff Ahmed Ali.
The government of military ruler President Pervez
Musharraf refused permission for PPP supporters to rally in
Lahore and extended a temporary ban on gatherings of more
than three people.
Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told Reuters
Zardari's movements would not be be restricted. "He is free
and independent and can go anywhere in the country. All
those detained will be freed soon," he told Reuters.
On Friday, Zardari vowed "street agitation" if the
government tried to block a rally by supporters to welcome
him home.
The crackdown has again dimmed hopes of reconciliation
between Musharraf, who seized power in a coup in 1999, and
Bhutto, prime minister for two terms in the 1980s and 1990s.
Bhutto has lived in self-imposed exile for fear of
arrest on corruption charges since 1999 and Musharraf has
in the past said she would not be allowed to return to
politics.
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