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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan-Pakistan's deposed chief justice called on lawyers nationwide to defy police and protest President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's imposition of emergency rule, while the government debated whether to delay parliamentary elections by as much as three months.In the northwest, near the Afghan border, Islamic militants seized a town from outnumbered security forces who surrendered without a fight.Musharraf, who took power in a 1999 coup, declared a state of emergency on Saturday, saying it was a response to a growing Islamic militant threat. He suspended the constitution, put a stranglehold on the media and granted sweeping powers to authorities to crush dissent. Thousands of people have been rounded up and thrown in jail.In the northwestern Swat valley, which has seen a wave of militant violence, about two dozen police officers and several troops offered no resistance to militants who seized three police stations and a military post around the town of Matta."We didn't harm the police and soldiers and allowed them to go to their homes as they didn't fight our mujahedeen," said Sirajuddin, a spokesman for Maulana Fazlullah, a firebrand cleric whose armed followers are battling security forces.He said the militants had hoisted their black and white flags over the captured posts. A police official in Swat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of his job, confirmed the surrender.The ousted chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry called on lawyers to defy the state of emergency - and hundreds of attorneys and police clashed during a street rally in the central city of Multan in the second day of unrest since the restrictions were imposed....To read more go to:
As in the days of Noah....
