By DPA
Islamabad : Authorities in Karachi Wednesday barred cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan from entering the southern port city of Pakistan after he arrived there to lead a demonstration against President Pervez Musharraf.
“He wanted to hold a rally here, which is banned,” spokesman for the government of the Sindh province Waseem Akhtar told Aaj news channel.
“We had already barred his entry in the city for 30 days to maintain the public order but he violated the government order,” he added.
Police arrested more than a dozen of Khan’s supporters when they tried to enter the city airport to welcome him. The politician was sent back to Islamabad on the next flight.
The Sindh government is controlled by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), which is staunchly loyal to President Musharraf.
Khan, who was one of the country’s most prolific test cricketers in the 1980s and early 1990s, was formerly an ally of Musharraf but then broke away and led his Tehrik-i-Insaf, or Movement of Justice Party, into opposition.
The incident came two days after another opposition leader and former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, was deported from Pakistan to Saudi Arabia when he arrived in Islamabad airport after almost seven years in exile.
Both Sharif and Khan have vowed to rally opposition forces and topple Musharraf, an army general who took power in a bloodless coup in 1999.
“The action is dictatorial and undemocratic,” Khan said, adding that the president and his allies wanted to silence every voice against them.
The confrontation with the opposition leaders comes as he prepares to seek a further five-year mandate from parliament in mid-October.