ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s government considered cutting a deal with the opposition Friday to ease a political crisis undermining its shaky one-year rule, but it stepped up a nationwide crackdown on demonstrators converging on the capital for a major rally.
The opposition warned that distrust between the two camps meant any agreement would be hard to broker, a blow to hopes for a quick resolution of a standoff that risks distracting the government as it faces rising al-Qaeda and Taliban violence.
The crisis stems from President Asif Ali Zardari’s refusal to accept demands from activist lawyers that he reinstate a group of judges fired by his predecessor, Pervez Musharraf. It deepened last month when the Supreme Court banned opposition leader Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz from elected office.
Hours after the court’s verdict, Zardari dismissed the Punjab provincial administration led by Sharif’s brother and handed the reins to a federally appointed regional governor.
Sharif urged Pakistanis to join the lawyers’ planned march, putting the country’s two largest political parties on a collision course.
A senior aide to Zardari said he might allow the opposition to regain the leadership in Punjab, the country’s most populous and powerful province, to help ease the turmoil. That would involve lifting the governor’s rule and letting Sharif’s party elect a new chief minister, he said.
It was unclear how much impact that would have on resolving the dispute because it does not address the movement’s main demand — the restoration of independent-minded judges who many think could be hostile to Zardari.
A Sharif spokesman declined to discuss any deal but noted that Zardari had backtracked on promises before.
Sharif denies he has latched on to the protests as a way to gain personal power or bring down the government, insisting he wants to strengthen Pakistani democracy. However, in an interview with a local TV channel, he warned that by holding out on the judges, Zardari may have to exit his term early.
Early Friday, police stopped about 200 lawyers in a convoy of cars and buses from entering Sindh province en route to Islamabad, witnesses and participants said. No arrests were made, and the protesters vowed to find another way to get to the capital.
