March 15, 2007	Thursday	Safar 25, 1428

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ISLAMABAD, March 14: Government hospitals, police and the fire brigade department in the federal capital have been put on high alert and 4,000 extra security forces are being called from other provinces in apprehension of trouble in the city on Friday when proceedings against Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry resume.

Dawn has learnt that the city administration on Wednesday requested the federal government to call reinforcements and ask the governments of Punjab, NWFP and Kashmir to stop their citizens from joining the protests planned by lawyers and the opposition parties in Islamabad on Friday.

Local police, hospitals and fire brigade department received a letter from the office of the Chief Commissioner of Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) directing them to take measures to meet any emergency situation.

However, Islamabad’s Deputy Commissioner Chaudhry Mohammad Ali, when contacted, told Dawn that the precautionary measures related to the celebrations of Pakistan Day on March 23.

The “high alert” would end the next day but a lower state of alert would continue for 10 days, according to the official.

Civil and military officials are scheduled to review the security measures in a meeting on Thursday at the Sports Complex where the armed forces are preparing for the traditional military parade on Pakistan Day.

Chastened by the events of Tuesday when lawyers snatched the defrocked chief justice from the local police, the Islamabad administration feels it would not be able to control the protests on Friday which it expects to be much stronger.

Islamabad has already been in a state of alert since January 21 when religious militants confronted the government over the “unauthorised mosques and Madressahs” issue and occupied a public library.

Personnel of Punjab police, elite force and Frontier Constabulary were then called to reinforce the local police to meet the challenge thrown by the militants. They are still in the city as two suicide attacks in the following weeks aggravated the security concerns in the capital city.

Resentment caused by the government’s action in rendering Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry “non-functional” has further charged the atmosphere in the federal capital.

The “high alert” announced on Wednesday appear to be related to the protests planned by the lawyers’ community and the opposition parties for Friday.

Dawn has learnt that the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) and the Federal Government Services Hospital have put their doctors and paramedical staff on stand-by and taken measures to handle up to 150 emergency cases in the former and up to 75 in the latter.

Their ambulance fleets are being refurbished and stores of life-saving drugs and blood banks being replenished.

The fire brigade department is similarly readying itself to cope with arson in an emergency.