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 Protests against China's human rights record have disrupted the torch's passage through Western cities and Pakistan has gone to great lengths to avoid any repeat during its 22-hour stay en route to Beijing.
Instead of carrying the torch in relay along a nearly 2-mile route from the white marble Parliament in Pakistan's grid-plan capital, as originally planned, Pakistani athletes will run only around the grounds of Jinnah Stadium, the city's main sports complex.
Police, many carrying guns, surrounded the stadium, where soldiers manned the main gate and checked vehicles with dogs. Only guests with invitation cards issued by the Pakistan Olympic Association were being allowed in.
Amir Abbas, an actor from the eastern city of Lahore who came to see the torch, expected it to be visible to the general public. But he had no invitation card and was trying to convince organizers to let him in.
"God will make a way for me," he said.
About 60 Pakistani athletes were to take turns carrying the torch to the ceremony featuring folk music and dancing before guests including President Pervez Musharraf, who just returned from a six-day state visit to China.
Col. Baseer Haider, an army official helping organize the event, said the route change was made because of the "overall security environment" and the risk of bad weather. A violent hailstorm hit Islamabad on Tuesday, but weather was fine Wednesday.
The Pakistan Olympic Association has urged broadcasters using state TV coverage of the torch to avoid "negative comments" and make "no mention" of the conflict in Tibet.
Pakistan has strong and long-standing defense and economic links with China. Both are rivals of neighboring India.
The turmoil over the torch relay and the growing international criticism of China's policies on Tibet and Darfur have turned the Olympic Games
-- which begin Aug. 8 -- into one of the most contentious in recent history.
The flame, which began its worldwide six-continent trek from ancient Olympia in Greece on March 24, is due in India on Thursday.
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 In India's capital, New Delhi, about 100 Tibetan exiles tried to breach the security cordon around the Chinese embassy on Wednesday. They were pushed back by Indian police and two dozen were arrested and taken away in police vans.
Another 50 were forced back on to the buses in which they had arrived. It was not immediately clear whether they were being arrested or detained.
The protesting exiles spray-painted "No Olympics in China" on a street near the embassy.
Meanwhile, an official in Australia said Wednesday that Chinese guards traveling with the torch could face arrest if they lay hands on any protesters during its visit to the capital, Canberra, next week.
Ted Quinlan, chairman of the Canberra relay task force, said the so-called torch attendants will have no responsibility for security.
"The answer is no they won't and, in fact, they could be subject to arrest in fact if they laid a hand on somebody," he told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.
Chinese officials clad in track suits and recruited from paramilitary police forces have been accompanying the flame. The guards were criticized for heavy-handed tactics in the London and Paris legs of the torch relay.
Attorney-General Robert McClelland said security in Canberra will be the responsibility of the Australian Federal Police.
[Associated
Press; By SADAQAT JAN]
Associated Press writers Zarar Khan in Islamabad and Tim Sullivan in New Delhi contributed to this report.
Copyright 2008 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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