Islamabad – The Pakistani government has put its troops on standby ahead of a planned anti-government rally in Islamabad by opposition groups, an army spokesman said Saturday.

Major General Athar Abbas said the military had been formally asked to keep the troops ready. “These can be deployed in sensitive areas of some districts if the situation gets out of control,” he added.

An alliance of opposition parties and lawyers Thursday launched a cross-country march in southern Pakistan and is heading towards Islamabad, where they planned to start a sit-in on Monday until their demand for independent judiciary is met.

Tens of thousands of people are expected to attend the rally.

President Asif Ali Zardari has tried to suppress the protests which threaten political instability in the nuclear-armed country, with arrests of more than 1,000 activists.

This has raised concerns in Washington and other Western nations, which want the nuclear-armed country to focus on the fight against Taliban and al-Qaeda militants.

US and British diplomats have tried to broker a deal between opposition leader Nawaz Sharif and Zardari. Pakistani military chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani is also part of the reconciliation efforts that continued late Friday.

But they failed to persuade Zardari into a compromise to defuse political tensions.

An adamant Zardari told Kayani that he could think about the reconciliation formula only after Monday when the fury of the so- called long march was over, the English-language The News reported.

Zardari urged the opposition for resolving the matter through dialogue early Saturday after a meeting lasting several hours to pursue efforts to defuse tensions.

“The meeting expressed hope that the offer will be responded to positively by the political forces in the country,” his spokesman Farhatullah Babar said.

Meanwhile, opposition parties and anti-government lawyers were in the midst of their cross-country march Saturday, travelling through the eastern province of Punjab en route to Islamabad.

Around 2,000 black-suited lawyers gathered in the central town of Multan, where they scuffled with riot police who stopped them from embarking on their journey to Punjab’s capital, Lahore. They chanted slogans like “Death to Zardari,” “Zardari is a dog” and “restore the chief justice.”

Many of them later left for Islamabad where thousands of paramilitary troops have been called out and law enforcement agencies have seized thousands of containers and trucks to block roads.

Zardari has ordered a blockade of transmissions of the country’s most popular Geo news channel in many cities, its administration says.

The hard-handed tactics triggered criticism from rights activists and even dissent within Zardari’s own Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

Information Minister Sherry Rehman resigned after failing to persuade Zardari to lift the ban on telecasts. Rehman was the second minister to resign from the cabinet in less than two weeks.

Senator Safdar Abbasi, a senior PPP leader, lashed out Friday at Zardari while speaking at a lawyers meeting.

“You are losing your repute in the party,” Abbasi said. “The nation is not ready to trust you. For God’s sake, restore your credibility. If you don’t do this, the party will be on the receiving end.”

Naheed Khan, who served as political secretary to Zardari’s slain spouse and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, said he hoped Zardari “would put his ego aside and fulfil the demand of millions of Pakistani people for reinstatement of (deposed) justice Iftikhar Chaudhry as the chief justice of Pakistan.” (dpa)