Pakistani authorities placed opposition leader Nawaz Sharif under house arrest:Update Sharif Refuses and Security Forces Collapse

Sharif

Update: The government crackdown has backfired:

LAHORE, Pakistan — A crackdown by the Pakistani government to prevent a national demonstration and detain the country’s leading opposition figure collapsed on Sunday, and what had been a clash between the police and protesters transformed into a huge antigovernment rally.In what analysts here called an unprecedented reversal by security forces, phalanxes of riot policemen here in Lahore melted away rather than continue to confront protesters who had rallied around the opposition leader, Nawaz Sharif, when he defied a house arrest order early Sunday

Its anarchy or a Strong Man.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan has placed opposition leader Nawaz Sharif under house arrest for three days, his party told CNN.

Sharif, who heads the Pakistan Muslim League - N (PML-N), was ordered confined to his residence in the city of Lahore from 8 a.m. Sunday (0300 GMT), said the party's acting President Makhdoom Javed Hashmi.

The police detention order said the move was meant to preserve law and order, Hashmi said.

Sharif's party is backing thousands of lawyers who are on a four-day march that demonstrators plan to cap with a sit-in at the parliament building in Islamabad on Monday. He was expected to address crowds ahead of the sit-in.

The lawyers are demanding the government immediately restore judges the previous president, Pervez Musharraf, had ousted.

Sharif's party has its own reasons to go along with the protests: The Supreme Court ruled last month that Sharif cannot hold public office, citing a criminal record that dates to the late 1990s. The court also stripped Sharif's brother, Shahbaz Sharif, from his post as chief minister of Punjab -- the Sharif party's power center.

Man I hope those A-Bombs are secure and where is AQ Khan?

Now it looks like rioting:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Police in Pakistan fought running battles with stone-throwing protesters who defied a government ban on rallies and congregated in large numbers in Lahore on Sunday.The demonstrators are part of a planned four-day march to the capital, Islamabad. The procession had been relatively peaceful until it reached Lahore in the Punjab province, the home base of opposition leader Nawaz Sharif.

There, the crowd was incited by conflicting reports that authorities had detained Sharif to prevent him from leading the rally toward Islamabad.Officers in riot gear fired tear gas at the demonstrators near the Lahore Supreme Court. As soon as the sting from the gas wore off, the protesters regrouped, only to be chased away by police wielding batons.

Authorities made several arrests. Ambulances were seen at the location.

Soon afterward, Sharif emerged from his residence and told reporters he had been placed on house arrest but that he refused to abide by it.