Pakistan: Protesters Start March On Parliament House

Thousands of protesters loyal to opposition politician Imran Khan and religious scholar Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri started their march on the parliament house after the two leaders asked their supporters to enter the Red Zone, a heavily protected area where many official and diplomatic buildings are located.



Khan and Qadri, whose followers joined hands after launching separate rallies towards the parliament house, not only ignored appeals from the mainstraem opposition parties to show restrain, but also rejected government's warning of strict action in case they cross into Red Zone.



Chanting slogans "Go Nawaz, go,"Fraud parliament unacceptable," " Nawaz Sharif stand down," and waving party flags, thousands of men and women are barely one and half kilometers away from the Red Zone where over 40,000 police and para-military force "rangers" are all set to stop them.



The army has also been put on high alert with hundreds of troops deployed around the diplomatic enclave and other sensitive installations.



Interior Minister Chaudry Nisar Ali Khan has already warned the protesters not to "test the government's patience" by trying to cross into the Red Zone.



Interior ministry sources have told Anadolu Agency that the security forces have strictly been directed not to fire on the protesters in any case. Instead, they would be tackled and dispersed by baton charge, rubber bullets and tear gas, sources said.



Hundreds of female police personnel are also taking position around the Red Zone to tackle the women protesters.



Eyewitnesses said that the police and rangers were holding position to take on the protesters led by Khan and Qadri who say their followers would remain peaceful and stage a sit-in before the parliament house.



"Nawaz Sharif, listen to me. If anything wrong happens to my workers, I will never spare you, and if anything happens to me, my workers will not spare you," Khan said.



"I call upon the police to stay away. Don't stop us. We are coming to liberate Pakistan from the corrupt rulers," he added.



Mediation fails



Mediation efforts launched by mainstream political and religious parties, particularly by Siraj-ul-Haq, the chief of the country's largest Islamic party Jamat-e-Islami, and the opposition leader Khursheed Shah, have failed to produce any results as Khan and Qadri even refused to hold talks until Sharif stands down.



"Khan has let us down," Khursheed Shah told reporters along with leaders of other opposition parties after Khan's announcement to march towards the parliament house.



Shah and other opposition leaders had coxed the government to allow Khan and Qadri to enter Islamabad assuring that their respective supporters would not cross the Red Zone.



Haq, who has been active to broker a deal between the protesting leaders and the government for over two weeks, appears to be disappointed too.



"I appeal to Imran Khan and Dr. Tahir ul Qadri not to play with the country's honor," Haq told reporters in Islamabad.



He urged Khan and Qadri to resolve the crisis through talks, and not to take the matters to the dead end.



He feared that a clash between security forces, and the protesters in the Red Zone might "roll the entire democratic system."



The Jamat-e-Islami, which is a coalition partner of Khan's Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf, which rules the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhawa province, has already refused to support the ruling party's idea of dissolving the provincial assembly to increase pressure on the prime minister to stand down.



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