Islamabad: Pakistan's military ruler has amended a law to give army courts sweeping powers to try civilians on charges ranging from treason to inciting public unrest, officials said on Sunday, as the country's opposition leader prepared to stage a massive, 300-kilometre protest march.
The moves came one week after President General Pervez Musharraf imposed a state of emergency, which he said was necessary to fight Islamic militancy.
But the main targets of his crackdown so far have been his most outspoken critics, including the increasingly independent judiciary and media.
Thousands of people have been arrested, TV news stations taken off air, and judges removed. On Saturday, three reporters from Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper were ordered to leave Pakistan because of an editorial in the paper that used an expletive to allude to Musharraf.
Praise
The army chief - under pressure from the United States and other Western allies to return to the path of democracy - won praise for agreeing Saturday to lift the emergency within weeks and hold elections by February 15, one month later than originally scheduled.
US President George W. Bush described the promises as "positive", throwing Washington's support firmly behind the embattled Pakistani leader, whom he has in the past described as a good friend.
But a decision to amend the Pakistan Army Act - confirmed by Attorney General Malek Mohammad Qayyum yesterday - is likely to raise fresh concerns. The amendment would allow military courts to try people accused of treason, sedition, or "giving statements conducive to public mischief". In theory, that could include opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, who said she would defy Musharraf's ban on public gatherings and lead supporters on a march from the eastern city of Lahore to the capital Islamabad on Tuesday.
Gaining ground
"When the masses combine, the sound of their steps will suppress the sound of military boots," Bhutto, a former prime minister, told hundreds of protesters on Saturday, hours after she was freed from 24 hours of house arrest.
Addressing supporters through a loudspeaker, she said Taliban and Al Qaida-linked militants were gaining ground in the country's turbulent northwest. She also said Musharraf's military-led government was about to crumble.
"This government is standing on its last foot," she said, as dozens of supporters scuffled briefly with police. "This government is going to go."
The United States considers Musharraf a bulwark in its so-called war on terrorism.
