Pak cleric launches bid to oust govt

A populist Pakistani cleric yesterday announced a march on Islamabad to overthrow the government, hours after being charged with murder for the death of a policeman injured in clashes with his supporters.
Tahir-ul-Qadri said he will take to the streets on the same day that opposition leader Imran Khan will hold a rally in the capital aiming to force the government to step down and hold a fresh election.
Both protest rallies will be held on Thursday when Pakistan celebrates its independence day.
"Our march will begin on August 14," Qadri told thousands of his supporters in a fiery speech in eastern city of Lahore, saying he would "struggle" along with Khan to topple the government.
"We would struggle together and would end the kingdom of cruelty," he said.
A spokesman for the cleric said he "will lead hundreds of thousands of people either on August 13 or morning of August 14 and march on Islamabad".
Earlier police in Lahore said they had charged Qadri with murder after a constable, who was wounded in Lahore on Friday in confrontations with his followers, died of his injuries late Saturday.
"A case of murder, inciting violence and treason have been registered against Tahir-ul-Qadri and his supporters," senior police official Zulfiqar Hameed told AFP.
Police said the Canada-based cleric faced many other accusations of attempted murder as well as inciting his followers to attack police and commit terrorist acts.
Violence broke out on Friday after hundreds of the cleric's baton-wielding supporters calshed with police to breach a blockade that authorities set up in front of Qadri's party headquarters in Lahore.