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ISLAMABAD - Leading Pakistani opposition leader Imran Khan escaped from his home in Lahore hours after police put him under house arrest following the imposition of emergency rule by President Pervez Musharraf.
"He was detained along with eight supporters at the house. The supporters are at home but he has slipped away," a close relative said. "Police are still outside the house."
Khan, who captained his cricket-mad country's team to victory in the 1992 World Cup, had urged Pakistanis to take to the streets to protest against General Musharraf's action.
Police placed Khan under house arrest early on Sunday after he urged Pakistanis to take to the streets.
Khan told CNN Musharraf was to blame for Pakistan's problems and said emergency rule would not help.
"He never said how is he, through the emergency, going to do things that are any different. He was the absolute ruler, he had absolute control, so what was the impediment in his way to fight militancy and terrorism?"
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif called on President Pervez Musharraf to step down following his imposition of emergency rule.
Asked what Musharraf should do now, Sharif told Sky News: "Step down, because he is part of the problem ... The more he prolongs his misrule, Pakistan will be moving towards anarchy."
Sharif, speaking by telephone from Saudi Arabia, said he had every intention of going back to Pakistan.
"I'm talking to my hosts in Saudi Arabia (about returning) ... The people of Pakistan expect me to come back and play my role and lead the country out of this mess," he said.
Sharif was arrested and deported to Saudi Arabia in September within hours of arriving home vowing to end Musharraf's rule after seven years in exile .
Commenting on the US decision to review billions of dollars of financial aid to close ally Pakistan following Musharraf's action, Sharif said: "Just saying that we will review the aid is not enough."
"I think the Western countries, especially the United States of America, must condemn this in the strongest terms and must urge Musharraf to reverse all that he's done yesterday."
He said Benazir Bhutto, another former prime minister who held months of talks with Musharraf on a power-sharing pact, "should now in very clear terms announce that she will not negotiate with dictators and we will be very ready to cooperate with her, sit down with her."
Javed Hashmi, acting president of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), told reporters before being whisked away by police in the central city of Multan: "Musharraf's days are numbered. The time has come to end the political role of the army,"
In Karachi, the country's largest and most politically volatile city, police chief Azhar Ali Farooqi spelled out the uncompromising stand that has been ordered.
"Our soft policy is over now. We have zero tolerance. We will take action, arrest and use force if necessary," Farooqi said, as attention turned to what Pakistan's most potent opposition leader, Benazir Bhutto, might do next.
Bhutto, who ended 8 years of self-imposed exile last month with Musharraf's blessing, returned to Karachi on Saturday evening after a short trip to Dubai and took a strong stand against what she called a "mini-martial" law.
But the litmus test will be whether she calls for street protests or seeks to persuade Musharraf to reverse his decision.
Qazi Hussain Ahmed, the leader of an alliance of Islamist opposition parties and fierce Musharraf critic, planned to address a public meeting outside the eastern city of Lahore later on Sunday.
Tariq Mehmood, a leading anti-Musharraf lawyer, said most lawyers opposed to the military ruler were under house arrest or detained.
"It's the second takeover of the country by General Musharraf since 1999. He has not imposed emergency rule but has imposed martial law," Mehmood told Reuters from a police station where he was detained.
Leading lawyer and opposition figure Aitzaz Ahsan was one of the first to be detained on Saturday.
"They have served me a detention order for 30 days," Ahsan, president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, told reporters outside his home in the capital.
"One man has taken entire nation hostage... Time has come for General Musharraf to go," he said.
Several opposition figures and anti-Musharraf lawyers were also arrested in the southwestern city of Quetta, police said.
- Reuters
