Since suspending his country's Constitution over the weekend, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has moved quickly to arrest opposition activists and control the press, nudging the country closer to a full-fledged dictatorship.

The Associated Press reports that 1,500 activists have been arrested since the president gave himself sweeping powers on Saturday, in a move that analysts said appeared designed to preempt a Supreme Court ruling that could have prevented him from being reelected president.

Legions of baton-wielding police clashed with lawyers to squash protests against President Gen. Pervez Musharraf on Monday, while international pressure mounted against the imposition of emergency powers.

Independent TV news networks remained off the air Monday. Police raided a printing press in Karachi belonging to Pakistan's largest media group, blocking publication of its Urdu-language evening newspaper, Awam, or People, Jang Group managing director Shahrukh Hassan said from the scene.

Musharraf briefed foreign ambassadors Monday, saying the "superior judiciary paralyzed various organs of the state and created impediments in the fight against terrorism," state-run Associated Press of Pakistan reported.

While stopping short of a complete condemnation, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged President Musharraf to quickly restore the rule of law to Pakistan, Reuters reports. Both the US and Britain have urged the country to hold elections scheduled for January.

"We believe that the best path for Pakistan is to quickly return to a constitutional path and then to hold elections," Rice told a news conference during a visit to the West Bank.

The United States has put future aid to Pakistan under review, having provided $10 billion in the past five years.

"Pakistan is a country of great strategic importance to the United States and a key partner in the war on terror. However, the actions of the past 72 hours have been disturbing," U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on a visit to China as the Pentagon postponed defense talks with Pakistan due this week.

In its Nov. 4 issue, The Dawn, Pakistan's largest English-language newspaper, carried a roundup of those detained in a front page article, which includes opposition political party heads and a former director of the ISI, Pakistan's powerful intelligence agency.

That issue also carried an article in which Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz hinted that elections could be delayed for one year, instead of being held in January as the US has been urging.

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