QUETTA REUTERS July 12-Pakistani police detained hundreds of members of the former ruling party in the central city of Lahore on Thursday, weeks before the country heads to the polls, party officials said.   

 No official reason was given but the party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), says it is an attempt to stifle its ability to launch street protests.    A police official who asked not to be identified said more than 100 PML-N workers had been detained.   

 “We received instructions to take prominent PML-N activists from their areas to avoid a law and order problem,” the official told Reuters.     The crackdown on the PML-N, whose leaders have accused the military of attempting to destabilise the party, comes a day before the party founder, ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, is due to return to Pakistan where he faces arrest.   

 Muhammad Mehdi, the party’s media coordinator, told Reuters that nearly 500 workers had been detained in a “massive crackdown...”