Pakistan’s Sharif capitalizes on lawyers’ march

Soon after, two prominent leaders of the lawyers' movement were arrested. Police also arrested up to 100 other lawyers and political activists after charging at them with batons.

Protestors say they are not discouraged. "We are not afraid of arrests," says Mohammad Ishaq, a lawyer in Karachi. "Some of our colleagues were burned alive or showered with bullets in the past. Even then we didn't step back."

The arrests do seem to be having some chilling effect, though. "This is the main reason why young leaders are not coming out. They are fearful," says Uzaer Abdullah, a student at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad. He says that despite his support for Sharif – "the only politician who is sincere with us" – he won't be participating in the protests for fear of being detained.

Several dozen leftists turned out in Islamabad Thursday to defy the ban on demonstrations. But the protesters also noted their unease with Sharif. He hasn't strongly condemned militants, says Iqbal Bali with the People's Rights Movement. Mr. Bali also worries that Sharif's power base – the merchant class in Punjab Province – draws from the same well that religious groups tied to militants do.

Ruling party leaders argue that Sharif's embrace of an independent judiciary and rule of law are positions of convenience. "Sharif's discovery of judicial independence is certainly coming at a self-serving moment," says Abida Hussain, a member of the PPP's central executive committee who was previously active in both Sharif's party and the lawyers' movement.

But some analysts say Sharif has been fairly consistent lately on the need to keep the military out of politics and politics out of the courts. "A sea change took place in his attitudes after his ouster in 1999," says Rashid Ahmad Khan, senior research fellow at the Islamabad Policy Research Institute.

He acknowledges that this wasn't always the case. During his second tenure as prime minister, Sharif was accused of engineering the dismissal of the chief justice.

Analysts say it's too early to know if Sharif can parlay the current crisis into a return to government. Most think it unlikely in the near term. The prospect may worry the US, analysts say, but there are reasons to think it shouldn't.

Although Sharif did get support from religious parties – some of whom before Sept. 11, 2001, had ties to militant groups – even then, he resisted calls from his religious allies to institute Islamic law, Mr. Khan points out.

"Nawaz has a history – he enjoys the support of the very elements that the West is petrified of," says Ayesha Jalal, a history professor at Tufts University. "But the fact is that when he has been in power, he has a record of being quite appeasing. Whether that will happen again, we don't know."

• Huma Yusuf contributed to this report from Karachi, Pakistan.

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