ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Groups opposed to the United States' war in neighboring Afghanistan vowed Thursday to go ahead with street protests across Pakistan despite strict new government measures to curtail public dissent.
The statements set up the first real test of the restrictions, which include bans on loudspeakers, incitement against the military and processions that disrupt commerce or routine life. Traditionally, the largest public demonstrations in Pakistan come on Fridays, the Muslim Sabbath.
Collectively, the steps announced by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's military government late Wednesday represent the first concerted effort to curb the country's Islamic fundamentalist political parties on the Afghanistan issue since the demonstrations began in mid-September.
"Processions should be discouraged," Interior Minister Tasneem Noorani said. "Peaceful public meetings can be held, but there can be nothing that disrupts civic life."
Although Pakistan is under military rule, people here have enjoyed considerable freedom, including being able to demonstrate and to criticize the government in public. The media have latitude in reporting the news.
The government also arrested a prominent mainstream politician on corruption charges early Thursday, only hours after his party voted to join a one-day general strike being organized by the Islamic parties for next Friday. Javed Hashmi of the Pakistan Muslim League was reportedly seized by police in Islamabad, the capital, shortly before 2 a.m. He was taken to the eastern city of Lahore, where he remained in custody later Thursday.
The head of the party's standing committee, Ahsan Iqbal, called the arrest "an attempt to crush the Pakistan Muslim League."
Others saw it as a preemptive strike by Musharraf in the form of a thinly veiled warning to leaders of other broad-based political parties that they too risk jail if they decide to join in the anti-American protests.
After several weeks of generally smaller-than-expected street demonstrations organized by Pakistan's religion-based parties, violence erupted last weekend in two cities. A massacre near the central Pakistani city of Multan on Sunday left 15 Christians and a Muslim security guard dead, and a bus bombing in the western city of Quetta claimed three lives.
There have also been disruptive sit-ins, with one group blocking the famous Karakoram Highway for several days. The road connects Pakistan with China through high mountain passes. The government's restrictive measures appeared to be a direct response to this unrest.
