The US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has called on President Musharraf to "return to a constitutional path" and hold elections. The United States has also said that it will review its help to Islamabad.

The European Union has also expressed its concerns and urged Pakistan to hold elections on schedule. The Dutch government has frozen development aid to Pakistan, saying the move is intended to pressure Musharraf to restore democratic and constitutional rules.

Lawyers protest

Many lawyers were arrested as their protests were dispersed in Lahore, Karachi and Rawalpindi on Monday. The biggest protest was in Lahore at the city's High Court -- lawyers with head-wounds were thrown into waiting vans after police launched teargas shells at around 1,000 protesters.

Jan Nisar Baloch, a lawyer from Lahore, told Deutsche Welle that the protesting lawyers had not only been brutally beaten up by police officers but also by plainclothes army personnel.

"The police entered in the bar room forcibly and they brutally tortured the female lawyers and also the male lawyers," he said. "They manhandled them and used tear gas. More than 80 lawyers were arrested today. There were more than hundred personnel in plainclothes and they were also involved in the beating of lawyers."

Refused bail

The lawyers now in detention were arrested under section 16 of the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance which prohibits speech that "causes or is likely to cause fear or alarm to the public". They applied for bail which the court refused to grant them before adjourning until Tuesday.

Justice Khalil ur Rehman Ramdey was the head of the panel of Supreme Court judges, which heard the Chief Justice's petition when he was suspended in March. He has been under house arrest since Saturday night and was pessimistic about the current situation saying it was not good at all.

He explained that the crisis was at "melting point". "History teaches us that wherever they have closed the courts and not let them work independently the only outcome is revolution. In these circumstances, the people can do nothing but come out onto the streets," he warned.

1500 -- 1800 arrests

Not only lawyers have been detained since late on Saturday -- politicians and human rights activists have also been detained -- an estimated 1500 to 1800 people have been arrested across the country.

Asma Jahangir is a lawyer and the chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. She is also under house arrest: "It is despicable. From the Human Rights Commission alone 70 people were picked up from Lahore and many from other cities. Well Mr Musharraf himself said that its going from crisis to crisis but he is the main architect of this crisis."

Media restrictions

President Musharraf has also imposed restrictions on the media. Private television channels were blacked out on Saturday and Sunday, leaving only state television on air showing re-runs of Musharraf's Saturday late night address to the nation and advertisements promoting the government.

Husain Naqi, the Executive Editor of South Asian Media Net, is very concerned about the current situation and said there is "hardly any support" for General Musharraf. He said people were very angry that the media had been attacked and the private channels had been ordered to shut down.

"Service providers have been barred from broadcasting local and international news channels, except for PTV and Saudi Arabia’s new channel and Al Jazeera from today," he explained. "So people are buying transistors and dish antennas decoders. Because they are unaware of what is happening."

In 1999, President Pervez Musharraf took power in a coup and was largely supported by the people. Now he has imposed emergency rule to consolidate his power, which he was at risk of losing, but it is doubtful whether he will gain the support of the people this time.

What do you think about the situation? Please send your views to myasia@dw-world.de. We look forward to hearing from you.