Anti-Musharraf protesters clash with Pak police

ISLAMABAD: Scores of Pakistani Islamists scuffled with riot police and pelted them with stones on Monday in a new protest against President Pervez Musharraf's plan to win another term in office.   

The clashes erupted as police stopped activists from Pakistan's main coalition of religious parties, the Muttahida-Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), or United Action Front, from getting to the Supreme Court in Islamabad.   

Around two dozen protesters were arrested and dragged into police vans by riot police wearing helmets and carrying shields and batons, an reporter said.   

The crowd of flag-waving demonstrators threw stones at police and shouted slogans including "America's friends are traitors."   

The Supreme Court is hearing a series of legal challenges to the October 6 presidential election and to the authority of Musharraf, a key US ally who seized power in a 1999 coup.   

The petitions, filed by an alliance of opposition parties including the MMA, argue that Musharraf is ineligible to stand in the poll and that his dual role as president and army chief is illegal.   

It is expected to rule within days.   

The alliance has vowed to rally outside the Supreme Court in the run-up to the poll. It also says it will blockade the nearby Election Commission when Musharraf files his nomination papers on Thursday.   

Musharraf has vowed to quit the army by November 15 if he is re-elected for another five-year term in the vote, which is by the federal and provincial assemblies.