ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN — Domestic and international pressure on Pakistan to calm political unrest intensified Friday as continued street clashes threatened to impair transportation, the economy and the fight against extremism.
The administration of President Asif Ali Zardari redoubled efforts to prevent demonstrators from reaching the capital, where they plan a sit-in Monday near parliament.
The government detained more protesters, called in additional police reinforcements, blocked more roads and further extended rules restricting public gatherings of more than four people, arguing that such meetings threatened public order and provided a target for terrorists.
In Peshawar, lawyers staged a protest over the crackdown in front of the provincial assembly building, while senior lawyer Abdul Latif Afridi and dozens of other local leaders remained under house arrest.
U.S. and British officials have stepped up their calls for a democratic solution, convinced that the bickering, posturing and street confrontations can only detract from Pakistan's efforts to fight Taliban-linked and Al Qaeda extremists operating within its borders.
The lawyers are demanding the reinstatement of Supreme Court judges removed by former President Pervez Musharraf. Zardari's administration has rejected the demands, fearing the judges would hand down unfavorable rulings.
"The government's in a real twist," said Musharraf Zaidi, a political analyst. "Something has to give, and the weakest spine appears to be the government's."
Even prominent members of Zardari's ruling Pakistan People's Party, including Sen. Safdar Abbasi and his wife, Naheed Khan, have come out in support of the lawyers.
Growing calls for reconciliation led to a flurry of meetings among top opposition figures, the president, prime minister, army chief of staff and important provincial officials.
"There's a lot of jockeying and pushing to and fro," said Tariq Fatemi, an analyst and former foreign secretary. "The next little while will be crucial."
Fatemi and others said the skeleton of a compromise might see the president reinstate the chief justices and remove a ban on opposition figures Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz holding elective office.
In return, observers said, the opposition and the lawyers groups might agree to call off the protests. Ousted Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, if reinstated, might give some quiet assurance that he wouldn't rule that Zardari is ineligible for office because of previous corruption charges, they said.
