Dissident Leader, Ex-Envoy Are Arrested in Pakistan

Source: Washington Post

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 14 -- Pakistani authorities on Wednesday arrested former cricket star Imran Khan, one of the last major opposition leaders to remain at large since the military-led government declared emergency rule and began widespread detentions. A former ambassador to the United States, Abida Hussain, was also arrested.

Khan, of the Pakistan Justice Movement, has wide support among student activists in Pakistan and had been in hiding since the emergency was imposed Nov. 3. He was seized one day after former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was placed under house arrest in Lahore. Another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, was deported from Pakistan two months ago, hours after he returned from exile.

On Wednesday, Bhutto intensified her attempts to reach out to disparate opposition figures, including Sharif, whose elected government was overthrown in the 1999 coup that elevated Gen. Pervez Musharraf to the presidency.

Bhutto had held quiet power-sharing negotiations with Musharraf for several months. But on Tuesday, she declared that she would not work with him and suggested that her Pakistan People's Party would boycott parliamentary elections in January.

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