By IANS
Islamabad : The Pakistan government will consider imposing national emergency in the country to ensure that people's lives are protected, a senior minister has said after a blast here killed at least 16 people.
Minister of State for Information Tariq Azim told the private channel Geo News that the government would consider various options to secure people's lives and improve law and order in the country, including the imposition of emergency.
Asked whether the latest attacks were part of a conspiracy against President Pervez Musharraf, he said terrorism was "a conspiracy against Pakistan and its people".
His comment came hours after a suicide bomber struck outside the venue of a lawyers rally and just days after over 100 people were killed in a military assault against militants and students holed up inside the Lal Masjid here.
Tuesday night's blast killed at least 16 people and injured 63, including 10 police officials, according to hospital sources.
The powerful blast went off outside the main entrance of a corridor leading to the venue of a meeting to be addressed by suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry just a short while later.
Supreme Court Bar Association President Munir A Malik, who is a known Chaudhry supporter, alleged that the chief justice was the target.
A 13-member bench of the Supreme Court is in the last stages of hearing Chaudhry's petitions challenging his suspension by Musharraf.
The government had earlier been saying that it would not impose emergency, a measure with political ramifications, ostensibly because that would bring it into direct confrontation with political parties.