Election spurs 'hundreds' of race threats, crimes
By JESSE WASHINGTON | November 15, 2008
Cross burnings. Schoolchildren chanting "Assassinate Obama." Black figures hung from nooses. Racial epithets scrawled on homes and cars.
Incidents around the country referring to President-elect Barack Obama are dampening the postelection glow of racial progress and harmony, highlighting the stubborn racism that remains in America.
From California to Maine, police have documented a range of alleged crimes, from vandalism and vague threats to at least one physical attack. Insults and taunts have been delivered by adults, college students and second-graders.
There have been "hundreds" of incidents since the election, many more than usual, said Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate crimes.
One was in Snellville, Ga., where Denene Millner said a boy on the school bus told her 9-year-old daughter the day after the election: "I hope Obama gets assassinated." That night, someone trashed her sister-in-law's front lawn, mangled the Obama lawn signs, and left two pizza boxes filled with human feces outside the front door, Millner said.
She described her emotions as a combination of anger and fear.
"I can't say that every white person in Snellville is evil and anti-Obama and willing to desecrate my property because one or two idiots did it," said Millner, who is black. "But it definitely makes you look a little different at the people who you live with, and makes you wonder what they're capable of and what they're really thinking."
Potok, who is white, said he believes there is "a large subset of white people in this country who feel that they are losing everything they know, that the country their forefathers built has somehow been stolen from them."
Grant Griffin, a 46-year-old white Georgia native, expressed similar sentiments: "I believe our nation is ruined and has been for several decades and the election of Obama is merely the culmination of the change.
"If you had real change it would involve all the members of (Obama's) church being deported," he said.
Change in whatever form does not come easy, and a black president is "the most profound change in the field of race this country has experienced since the Civil War," said William Ferris, senior associate director of the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina. "It's shaking the foundations on which the country has existed for centuries."
"Someone once said racism is like cancer," Ferris said. "It's never totally wiped out, it's in remission."
If so, America's remission lasted until the morning of Nov. 5.
The day after the vote hailed as a sign of a nation changed, black high school student Barbara Tyler of Marietta, Ga., said she heard hateful Obama comments from white students, and that teachers cut off discussion about Obama's victory.
Tyler spoke at a press conference by the Georgia chapter of the NAACP calling for a town hall meeting to address complaints from across the state about hostility and resentment. Another student, from a Covington middle school, said he was suspended for wearing an Obama shirt to school Nov. 5 after the principal told students not to wear political paraphernalia.
The student's mother, Eshe Riviears, said the principal told her: "Whether you like it or not, we're in the South, and there are a lot of people who are not happy with this decision."
Other incidents include:
_Four North Carolina State University students admitted writing anti-Obama comments in a tunnel designated for free speech expression, including one that said: "Let's shoot that (N-word) in the head." Obama has received more threats than any other president-elect, authorities say.
_At Standish, Maine, a sign inside the Oak Hill General Store read: "Osama Obama Shotgun Pool." Customers could sign up to bet $1 on a date when Obama would be killed. "Stabbing, shooting, roadside bombs, they all count," the sign said. At the bottom of the marker board was written "Let's hope someone wins."
_Racist graffiti was found in places including New York's Long Island, where two dozen cars were spray-painted; Kilgore, Texas, where the local high school and skate park were defaced; and the Los Angeles area, where swastikas, racial slurs and "Go Back To Africa" were spray painted on sidewalks, houses and cars.
_Second- and third-grade students on a school bus in Rexburg, Idaho, chanted "assassinate Obama," a district official said.
_University of Alabama professor Marsha L. Houston said a poster of the Obama family was ripped off her office door. A replacement poster was defaced with a death threat and a racial slur. "It seems the election brought the racist rats out of the woodwork," Houston said.
_Black figures were hanged by nooses from trees on Mount Desert Island, Maine, the Bangor Daily News reported. The president of Baylor University in Waco, Texas said a rope found hanging from a campus tree was apparently an abandoned swing and not a noose.
_Crosses were burned in yards of Obama supporters in Hardwick, N.J., and Apolacan Township, Pa.
_A black teenager in New York City said he was attacked with a bat on election night by four white men who shouted 'Obama.'
_In the Pittsburgh suburb of Forest Hills, a black man said he found a note with a racial slur on his car windshield, saying "now that you voted for Obama, just watch out for your house."
Emotions are often raw after a hard-fought political campaign, but now those on the losing side have an easy target for their anger.
"The principle is very simple," said BJ Gallagher, a sociologist and co-author of the diversity book "A Peacock in the Land of Penguins." "If I can't hurt the person I'm angry at, then I'll vent my anger on a substitute, i.e., someone of the same race."
"We saw the same thing happen after the 9-11 attacks, as a wave of anti-Muslim violence swept the country. We saw it happen after the Rodney King verdict, when Los Angeles blacks erupted in rage at the injustice perpetrated by 'the white man.'"
"It's as stupid and ineffectual as kicking your dog when you've had a bad day at the office," Gallagher said. "But it happens a lot."
Associated Press writers Errin Haines, Jerry Harkavy, Jay Reeves, Johnny Taylor and researcher Rhonda Shafner contributed to this report.
Showing posts with label elections. Show all posts
Showing posts with label elections. Show all posts
AP : Election spurs 'hundreds' of race threats, crimes
Saturday, November 15, 2008
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by Winter Patriot
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The Hill: Police prepare for unrest
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Police prepare for unrest
By Alexander Bolton | October 21, 2008
Police departments in cities across the country are beefing up their ranks for Election Day, preparing for possible civil unrest and riots after the historic presidential contest.
Public safety officials said in interviews with The Hill that the election, which will end with either the nation’s first black president or its first female vice president, demanded a stronger police presence.
Some worry that if Barack Obama loses and there is suspicion of foul play in the election, violence could ensue in cities with large black populations. Others based the need for enhanced patrols on past riots in urban areas (following professional sports events) and also on Internet rumors.
Democratic strategists and advocates for black voters say they understand officers wanting to keep the peace, but caution that excessive police presence could intimidate voters.
Sen. Obama (Ill.), the Democratic nominee for president, has seen his lead over rival Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) grow in recent weeks, prompting speculation that there could be a violent backlash if he loses unexpectedly.
Cities that have suffered unrest before, such as Detroit, Chicago, Oakland and Philadelphia, will have extra police deployed.
In Oakland, the police will deploy extra units trained in riot control, as well as extra traffic police, and even put SWAT teams on standby.
“Are we anticipating it will be a riot situation? No. But will we be prepared if it goes awry? Yes,” said Jeff Thomason, spokesman for the Oakland Police Department.
“I think it is a big deal — you got an African-American running and [a] woman running,” he added, in reference to Obama and GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. “Whoever wins it, it will be a national event. We will have more officers on the street in anticipation that things may go south.”
The Oakland police last faced big riots in 2003 when the Raiders lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Super Bowl. Officials are bracing themselves in case residents of Oakland take Obama’s loss badly.
Political observers such as Hilary Shelton and James Carville fear that record voter turnout could overload polling places on Election Day and could raise tension levels.
Shelton, the director of the NAACP’s Washington bureau, said inadequate voting facilities is a bigger problem in poor communities with large numbers of minorities.
“What are local election officials doing to prepare for what people think will be record turnout at the polls?” said Shelton, who added that during the 2004 election in Ohio voters in predominantly black communities had to wait in line six to eight hours to vote.
“On Election Day, if this continues, you may have some tempers flare; we should be prepared to deal with that but do it without intimidation,” said Shelton, who added that police have to be able to maintain order at polling stations without scaring voters, especially immigrants from “police states.”
Carville, who served as a senior political adviser to former President Bill Clinton, said that many Democrats would be very angry if Obama loses. He noted that many Democrats were upset by Sen. John Kerry’s (D-Mass.) loss to President Bush in the 2004 election, when some Democrats made allegations of vote manipulation in Ohio, the state that ultimately decided the race.
Experts estimated that thousands of voters did not vote in Ohio because of poor preparation and long lines.
Carville said Democratic anger in 2004 “would be very small to what would happen in 2008” if the same problems arose.
Carville said earlier this month that “it would be very, very, very dramatic out there” if Obama lost, a statement some commentators interpreted as predicting riots. In an interview Tuesday, however, Carville said he did not explicitly predict rioting.
“A lot of Democrats would have a great deal of angst and anger,” said Carville, who predicted that on Election Day “the voting system all around the country is going to be very stressed because there’s going to be enormous turnout.”
Other commentators have made such bold predictions.
“If [Obama] is elected, like with sports championships, people may go out and riot,” said Bob Parks, an online columnist and black Republican candidate for state representative in Massachusetts. “If Barack Obama loses there will be another large group of people who will assume the election was stolen from him….. This will be an opportunity for people who want to commit mischief.”
Speculation about Election-Day violence has spread on the Internet, especially on right-wing websites.
This has caught the attention of police departments in cities such as Cincinnati, which saw race riots in 2001 after police shot a young black man.
“We’ve seen it on the Internet and we’ve heard that there could be civil unrest depending on the outcome of [the election,]” said Lt. Mark Briede of the Cincinnati Police Department. “We are prepared to respond in the case of some sort of unrest or some sort of incident.”
Briede, like other police officials interviewed, declined to elaborate on plans for Election Day. Many police departments have policies prohibiting public discussion of security plans.
James Tate, second deputy chief of Detroit’s police department, said extra manpower would be assigned to duty on Election Night. He said problems could flare whichever candidate wins.
“Either party will make history and we want to prepare for celebrations that will be on a larger scale than for our sports teams,” Tate said.
He noted that police had to control rioters who overturned cars after the Tigers won the 1984 World Series.
“We’re prepared for the best-case scenario, we’re prepared for the worst-case scenario,” he said. “The worst-case scenario could be a situation that requires law enforcement.”
But Tate declined to describe what the worst-case scenario might look like, speaking gingerly like other police officials who are wary of implying that black voters are more likely than other voting groups to cause trouble.
Shelton, of the NAACP, said he understands the need for police to maintain order. But he is also concerned that some political partisans may point their finger at black voters as potential troublemakers because the Democratic nominee is black.
Shelton said any racial or ethnic group would get angry if they felt disenfranchised because of voting irregularities.
Police officials in Chicago, where Obama will hold a Nov. 4 rally, and Philadelphia are also preparing for Election Day.
“The Chicago Police Department has been meeting regularly to coordinate our safety and security plans and will deploy our resources accordingly,” said Monique Bond, of the Chicago Police Department.
Frank Vanore, of the Philadelphia Police Department, said officials were planning to mobilize to control exuberant or perhaps angry demonstrations after the World Series, which pits the Phillies against the Tampa Bay Rays.
He said the boosted police activity would “spill right over to the election.”
By Alexander Bolton | October 21, 2008
Police departments in cities across the country are beefing up their ranks for Election Day, preparing for possible civil unrest and riots after the historic presidential contest.
Public safety officials said in interviews with The Hill that the election, which will end with either the nation’s first black president or its first female vice president, demanded a stronger police presence.
Some worry that if Barack Obama loses and there is suspicion of foul play in the election, violence could ensue in cities with large black populations. Others based the need for enhanced patrols on past riots in urban areas (following professional sports events) and also on Internet rumors.
Democratic strategists and advocates for black voters say they understand officers wanting to keep the peace, but caution that excessive police presence could intimidate voters.
Sen. Obama (Ill.), the Democratic nominee for president, has seen his lead over rival Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) grow in recent weeks, prompting speculation that there could be a violent backlash if he loses unexpectedly.
Cities that have suffered unrest before, such as Detroit, Chicago, Oakland and Philadelphia, will have extra police deployed.
In Oakland, the police will deploy extra units trained in riot control, as well as extra traffic police, and even put SWAT teams on standby.
“Are we anticipating it will be a riot situation? No. But will we be prepared if it goes awry? Yes,” said Jeff Thomason, spokesman for the Oakland Police Department.
“I think it is a big deal — you got an African-American running and [a] woman running,” he added, in reference to Obama and GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. “Whoever wins it, it will be a national event. We will have more officers on the street in anticipation that things may go south.”
The Oakland police last faced big riots in 2003 when the Raiders lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Super Bowl. Officials are bracing themselves in case residents of Oakland take Obama’s loss badly.
Political observers such as Hilary Shelton and James Carville fear that record voter turnout could overload polling places on Election Day and could raise tension levels.
Shelton, the director of the NAACP’s Washington bureau, said inadequate voting facilities is a bigger problem in poor communities with large numbers of minorities.
“What are local election officials doing to prepare for what people think will be record turnout at the polls?” said Shelton, who added that during the 2004 election in Ohio voters in predominantly black communities had to wait in line six to eight hours to vote.
“On Election Day, if this continues, you may have some tempers flare; we should be prepared to deal with that but do it without intimidation,” said Shelton, who added that police have to be able to maintain order at polling stations without scaring voters, especially immigrants from “police states.”
Carville, who served as a senior political adviser to former President Bill Clinton, said that many Democrats would be very angry if Obama loses. He noted that many Democrats were upset by Sen. John Kerry’s (D-Mass.) loss to President Bush in the 2004 election, when some Democrats made allegations of vote manipulation in Ohio, the state that ultimately decided the race.
Experts estimated that thousands of voters did not vote in Ohio because of poor preparation and long lines.
Carville said Democratic anger in 2004 “would be very small to what would happen in 2008” if the same problems arose.
Carville said earlier this month that “it would be very, very, very dramatic out there” if Obama lost, a statement some commentators interpreted as predicting riots. In an interview Tuesday, however, Carville said he did not explicitly predict rioting.
“A lot of Democrats would have a great deal of angst and anger,” said Carville, who predicted that on Election Day “the voting system all around the country is going to be very stressed because there’s going to be enormous turnout.”
Other commentators have made such bold predictions.
“If [Obama] is elected, like with sports championships, people may go out and riot,” said Bob Parks, an online columnist and black Republican candidate for state representative in Massachusetts. “If Barack Obama loses there will be another large group of people who will assume the election was stolen from him….. This will be an opportunity for people who want to commit mischief.”
Speculation about Election-Day violence has spread on the Internet, especially on right-wing websites.
This has caught the attention of police departments in cities such as Cincinnati, which saw race riots in 2001 after police shot a young black man.
“We’ve seen it on the Internet and we’ve heard that there could be civil unrest depending on the outcome of [the election,]” said Lt. Mark Briede of the Cincinnati Police Department. “We are prepared to respond in the case of some sort of unrest or some sort of incident.”
Briede, like other police officials interviewed, declined to elaborate on plans for Election Day. Many police departments have policies prohibiting public discussion of security plans.
James Tate, second deputy chief of Detroit’s police department, said extra manpower would be assigned to duty on Election Night. He said problems could flare whichever candidate wins.
“Either party will make history and we want to prepare for celebrations that will be on a larger scale than for our sports teams,” Tate said.
He noted that police had to control rioters who overturned cars after the Tigers won the 1984 World Series.
“We’re prepared for the best-case scenario, we’re prepared for the worst-case scenario,” he said. “The worst-case scenario could be a situation that requires law enforcement.”
But Tate declined to describe what the worst-case scenario might look like, speaking gingerly like other police officials who are wary of implying that black voters are more likely than other voting groups to cause trouble.
Shelton, of the NAACP, said he understands the need for police to maintain order. But he is also concerned that some political partisans may point their finger at black voters as potential troublemakers because the Democratic nominee is black.
Shelton said any racial or ethnic group would get angry if they felt disenfranchised because of voting irregularities.
Police officials in Chicago, where Obama will hold a Nov. 4 rally, and Philadelphia are also preparing for Election Day.
“The Chicago Police Department has been meeting regularly to coordinate our safety and security plans and will deploy our resources accordingly,” said Monique Bond, of the Chicago Police Department.
Frank Vanore, of the Philadelphia Police Department, said officials were planning to mobilize to control exuberant or perhaps angry demonstrations after the World Series, which pits the Phillies against the Tampa Bay Rays.
He said the boosted police activity would “spill right over to the election.”
NYT : Vote Is Expected to Further Weaken Musharraf
Monday, February 18, 2008
Vote Is Expected to Further Weaken Musharraf
By CARLOTTA GALL and JANE PERLEZ | February 18, 2008
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistanis began voting Monday morning in parliamentary elections that are expected to diminish President Pervez Musharraf further and present Washington with a challenging new political lineup here as it pursues its fight against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in the region.
The vote, which was delayed after the assassination of the opposition leader Benazir Bhutto nearly two months ago, comes amid anxiety of further political turmoil if the government manipulates the results or enters a battle with the opposition parties over forming a government. Reuters reported that 80,000 troops were backing up police, keeping watch over polling places.
At least four candidates, including Ms. Bhutto, and nearly 100 other Pakistanis have been killed during the campaign. Parties have reported kidnappings and arrests of candidates and attempts to intimidate their families, according to Sheila Fruman, director of the National Democratic Institute’s office in Pakistan. The opposition has threatened street protests if the vote is perceived to be unfair, but has also called for a government of national consensus.
American officials and others here hope that the election provides a fresh opportunity for a new civilian government to rally Pakistanis behind the fight against the militants who now threaten the security and stability of the country.
After growing frustration with eight years of military rule, opposition politicians and analysts argue that Mr. Musharraf has lost the support of the people and cannot fight extremism effectively without it.
With the country facing a growing insurgency by the Taliban and Al Qaeda, rising prices and escalating violence, the nationwide vote will now serve as a kind of referendum on Mr. Musharraf, who has grown deeply unpopular.
No matter which party prevails, Mr. Musharraf, who has been Washington’s partner in the campaign against terrorism for the past six years, is almost certain to emerge further reduced in the post-election skirmishing.
He is already much weakened after resigning as army chief in November, and a popularly elected prime minister with the backing of Parliament will emerge as a competitive new force.
The party that has supported Mr. Musharraf for the past five years, the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, is expected to fare considerably worse than it did in the last election.
The party of Ms. Bhutto, the Pakistan Peoples Party, is riding a wave of sympathy after her death and may emerge as the largest party in Parliament, analysts say.
Ms. Bhutto’s party, which is now led by her widower, Asif Ali Zardari, and the party of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan Muslim League-N, are moderate parties opposed to terrorism.
They argue that only a popularly elected government can bring the country together to oppose militancy. For his part, Mr. Zardari has also called for a government of national consensus after the election and has not ruled out working with Mr. Musharraf.
The insurgency remains at the top of the Bush administration’s agenda here, and American officials have started to prepare for Mr. Musharraf’s eventual exit. In a series of high-level visits in the past month on how to stem the militants’ efforts to destabilize Pakistan, Washington officials have focused on the new army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, an implicit recognition of the shifting balance of power.
Despite the complaints about violence in the campaign and the potential for fraud, the Bush administration has appeared determined to validate the election as a satisfactory exercise in democracy. Richard A. Boucher, the assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, recently told a Congressional committee that he was looking for “as fair an election as possible.”
International observers, including several United States senators who arrived Sunday, have already warned of serious flaws in the pre-election process. They have said that at best the election would be deemed “credible,” rather than free and fair.
The biggest question will be to what extent the government apparatus will try to manipulate the results in favor of the pro-Musharraf party. If the elections are skewed too far in its favor, the government risks large protests and violence.
Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said after arriving in Lahore on Sunday night as an election observer that he was “mildly optimistic” that the election would be “fairly credible.”
But Mr. Biden said that if the election turned out to be seriously flawed, he would seek to curtail United States military aid to Pakistan. Two other members of the foreign relations committee, Senators Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska, and John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, also arrived to observe the election.
Ms. Fruman, of the National Democratic Institute, described a litany of complaints, mostly from opposition parties, of bribery and the use of state resources for campaigns. The production of counterfeit identity cards was uncovered in the town of Quetta when a package of 3,000 fake cards split open, Ms. Fruman said. Millions of names were found to have been missing from voter rolls, including, in one case, an entire village where support was strong for the Pakistan Peoples Party, she said.
“We cannot verify them, but in many cases the same complaints have come from different parties,” Ms. Fruman said. The irregularities were consistent with the trends described in the institute’s pre-election mission report, she said. Any one such incident, she added, “would be enough to stop elections in the West.”
Mr. Musharraf has promised free and fair elections and has warned parties not to protest if they lose. “I assure you that the elections will be fair, free and transparent and peaceful,” he said at a seminar in Islamabad, the capital, last week, the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan reported.
“Let there be no doubt that anyone will be allowed to resort to lawlessness in the garb of allegations about rigging in the elections,” he was quoted as saying.
Yet even the attorney general, Malik Muhammad Qayyum, seemed to acknowledge government interference in a telephone conversation with an acquaintance, which was recorded by a journalist in November. “They will massively rig to get their own people to win,” Mr. Qayyum said, apparently referring to the government.
Mr. Qayyum has since denied that the conversation occurred, but a transcript was released by Human Rights Watch, a New York-based organization. Mr. Qayyum had taken the call from his acquaintance while still on the line with the journalist, who had been interviewing him.
In a first for Pakistan, an estimated 20,000 volunteers have fanned out across the country to monitor polling stations, as well as the critical counting process that will be conducted by election officials at district courthouses after the polls close. But as many as 4,000 of them were denied accreditation to monitor the vote by government officials in Punjab, the most important province in the election.
The small army of volunteers is organized by the Free and Fair Election Network, which is financed in part by the United States Agency for International Development. Many of the monitors are in their 20s and 30s, eager to help make the election process fairer. They will conduct a parallel vote count Monday night in 264 of the 272 parliamentary constituencies.
A report by the Free and Fair Election Network released Feb. 5 said mayors had been supporting certain candidates by urging voters to vote for them, attending their rallies and allowing them to use resources like official cars and premises. “Most support is reported to have been in favor of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q,” Mr. Musharraf’s party, the report said.
The most sensitive hours of the election, according to experts, will be the counting of the ballots. The 272 officials who will count them are lower-court judges chosen by the national election commission, and many are in thrall to high-court judges appointed by the Musharraf government.
The IFES (formerly the International Foundation for Election Systems), a nonpartisan group, had advised the Pakistanis to change the counting system to make it less vulnerable to fraud, Western diplomats said. The changes, which would have involved requiring the returning officers to announce the constituency results polling station by polling station, had been rebuffed, they said.
Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, the former chief minister of Punjab and Mr. Musharraf’s candidate for prime minister, sounding more optimistic than even most officials of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, said he expected the party to win “100-plus seats” of the 148 parliamentary seats in Punjab.
The party dominated local government in Punjab, and local mayors would bring voters to the polls to vote for the Muslim League-Q ticket, he said. Most analysts say that even though Pakistani parliamentary elections turn on local politics, Mr. Elahi’s projection is exceptionally generous.
By CARLOTTA GALL and JANE PERLEZ | February 18, 2008
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistanis began voting Monday morning in parliamentary elections that are expected to diminish President Pervez Musharraf further and present Washington with a challenging new political lineup here as it pursues its fight against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in the region.
The vote, which was delayed after the assassination of the opposition leader Benazir Bhutto nearly two months ago, comes amid anxiety of further political turmoil if the government manipulates the results or enters a battle with the opposition parties over forming a government. Reuters reported that 80,000 troops were backing up police, keeping watch over polling places.
At least four candidates, including Ms. Bhutto, and nearly 100 other Pakistanis have been killed during the campaign. Parties have reported kidnappings and arrests of candidates and attempts to intimidate their families, according to Sheila Fruman, director of the National Democratic Institute’s office in Pakistan. The opposition has threatened street protests if the vote is perceived to be unfair, but has also called for a government of national consensus.
American officials and others here hope that the election provides a fresh opportunity for a new civilian government to rally Pakistanis behind the fight against the militants who now threaten the security and stability of the country.
After growing frustration with eight years of military rule, opposition politicians and analysts argue that Mr. Musharraf has lost the support of the people and cannot fight extremism effectively without it.
With the country facing a growing insurgency by the Taliban and Al Qaeda, rising prices and escalating violence, the nationwide vote will now serve as a kind of referendum on Mr. Musharraf, who has grown deeply unpopular.
No matter which party prevails, Mr. Musharraf, who has been Washington’s partner in the campaign against terrorism for the past six years, is almost certain to emerge further reduced in the post-election skirmishing.
He is already much weakened after resigning as army chief in November, and a popularly elected prime minister with the backing of Parliament will emerge as a competitive new force.
The party that has supported Mr. Musharraf for the past five years, the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, is expected to fare considerably worse than it did in the last election.
The party of Ms. Bhutto, the Pakistan Peoples Party, is riding a wave of sympathy after her death and may emerge as the largest party in Parliament, analysts say.
Ms. Bhutto’s party, which is now led by her widower, Asif Ali Zardari, and the party of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan Muslim League-N, are moderate parties opposed to terrorism.
They argue that only a popularly elected government can bring the country together to oppose militancy. For his part, Mr. Zardari has also called for a government of national consensus after the election and has not ruled out working with Mr. Musharraf.
The insurgency remains at the top of the Bush administration’s agenda here, and American officials have started to prepare for Mr. Musharraf’s eventual exit. In a series of high-level visits in the past month on how to stem the militants’ efforts to destabilize Pakistan, Washington officials have focused on the new army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, an implicit recognition of the shifting balance of power.
Despite the complaints about violence in the campaign and the potential for fraud, the Bush administration has appeared determined to validate the election as a satisfactory exercise in democracy. Richard A. Boucher, the assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, recently told a Congressional committee that he was looking for “as fair an election as possible.”
International observers, including several United States senators who arrived Sunday, have already warned of serious flaws in the pre-election process. They have said that at best the election would be deemed “credible,” rather than free and fair.
The biggest question will be to what extent the government apparatus will try to manipulate the results in favor of the pro-Musharraf party. If the elections are skewed too far in its favor, the government risks large protests and violence.
Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said after arriving in Lahore on Sunday night as an election observer that he was “mildly optimistic” that the election would be “fairly credible.”
But Mr. Biden said that if the election turned out to be seriously flawed, he would seek to curtail United States military aid to Pakistan. Two other members of the foreign relations committee, Senators Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska, and John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, also arrived to observe the election.
Ms. Fruman, of the National Democratic Institute, described a litany of complaints, mostly from opposition parties, of bribery and the use of state resources for campaigns. The production of counterfeit identity cards was uncovered in the town of Quetta when a package of 3,000 fake cards split open, Ms. Fruman said. Millions of names were found to have been missing from voter rolls, including, in one case, an entire village where support was strong for the Pakistan Peoples Party, she said.
“We cannot verify them, but in many cases the same complaints have come from different parties,” Ms. Fruman said. The irregularities were consistent with the trends described in the institute’s pre-election mission report, she said. Any one such incident, she added, “would be enough to stop elections in the West.”
Mr. Musharraf has promised free and fair elections and has warned parties not to protest if they lose. “I assure you that the elections will be fair, free and transparent and peaceful,” he said at a seminar in Islamabad, the capital, last week, the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan reported.
“Let there be no doubt that anyone will be allowed to resort to lawlessness in the garb of allegations about rigging in the elections,” he was quoted as saying.
Yet even the attorney general, Malik Muhammad Qayyum, seemed to acknowledge government interference in a telephone conversation with an acquaintance, which was recorded by a journalist in November. “They will massively rig to get their own people to win,” Mr. Qayyum said, apparently referring to the government.
Mr. Qayyum has since denied that the conversation occurred, but a transcript was released by Human Rights Watch, a New York-based organization. Mr. Qayyum had taken the call from his acquaintance while still on the line with the journalist, who had been interviewing him.
In a first for Pakistan, an estimated 20,000 volunteers have fanned out across the country to monitor polling stations, as well as the critical counting process that will be conducted by election officials at district courthouses after the polls close. But as many as 4,000 of them were denied accreditation to monitor the vote by government officials in Punjab, the most important province in the election.
The small army of volunteers is organized by the Free and Fair Election Network, which is financed in part by the United States Agency for International Development. Many of the monitors are in their 20s and 30s, eager to help make the election process fairer. They will conduct a parallel vote count Monday night in 264 of the 272 parliamentary constituencies.
A report by the Free and Fair Election Network released Feb. 5 said mayors had been supporting certain candidates by urging voters to vote for them, attending their rallies and allowing them to use resources like official cars and premises. “Most support is reported to have been in favor of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q,” Mr. Musharraf’s party, the report said.
The most sensitive hours of the election, according to experts, will be the counting of the ballots. The 272 officials who will count them are lower-court judges chosen by the national election commission, and many are in thrall to high-court judges appointed by the Musharraf government.
The IFES (formerly the International Foundation for Election Systems), a nonpartisan group, had advised the Pakistanis to change the counting system to make it less vulnerable to fraud, Western diplomats said. The changes, which would have involved requiring the returning officers to announce the constituency results polling station by polling station, had been rebuffed, they said.
Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, the former chief minister of Punjab and Mr. Musharraf’s candidate for prime minister, sounding more optimistic than even most officials of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, said he expected the party to win “100-plus seats” of the 148 parliamentary seats in Punjab.
The party dominated local government in Punjab, and local mayors would bring voters to the polls to vote for the Muslim League-Q ticket, he said. Most analysts say that even though Pakistani parliamentary elections turn on local politics, Mr. Elahi’s projection is exceptionally generous.
Filed under
elections,
Jane Perlez,
Pakistan
by Winter Patriot
on Monday, February 18, 2008
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IHT : Days of rage in Pakistan leave lingering cloud of uncertainty
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Days of rage in Pakistan leave lingering cloud of uncertainty
By Somini Sengupta | January 2, 2008
KARACHI, Pakistan: The highway that leads from Benazir Bhutto's ancestral village to this, her hometown, is one long road of ruin. Here and there along a stretch of 200 miles lie twisted hulks of tractor-trailers, their contents spilling out on the highway, casualties of the riots that broke out after Bhutto's assassination last Thursday.
On New Year's Eve, as the last light of 2007 fell from the sky, piles of coal still smoldered on the pavement. Rotten oranges littered the road. A consignment of pickup trucks that the United States had bought for Pakistani law enforcement officials fighting militants had been picked clean; brakes, steering wheels, batteries had been carted away.
The truck drivers, most of them ethnic Pashtuns from the faraway tribal areas of the northwest, waited in vain for rescue here in the southern ethnic Sindhi heartland. One of them had his left ear caked with blood; the mobs had pelted him with stones and then burned his coal truck, costing him his only source of income.
The road was a perfect emblem of the mood of this country, as it ushered in a new year under a thick shroud woven of rage and uncertainty.
"You don't know what the next day is going to bring," is how Sheena Hadi, 27, put it on New Year's morning here in Karachi. "We are in a gray area right now."
The gray pervades everything here, from the big, abstract questions about where the country is headed to the smallest, most mundane details of life.
Shops in Karachi, the city worst hit by the post-assassination violence, had been shuttered since Thursday evening. They opened for a few hours on Monday, only to close again amid rumors of another assassination. Those proved false, but under the present circumstances, when anything seemed possible, panic spread quickly, and residents scurried inside.
And so, as 2008 dawned and shops and restaurants opened, Seema Ahmed stepped out to do what she had never done in her 40 years in Karachi: stock up on food grains, in the event of another upheaval. Munizeh Sanai, a radio disc jockey, made sure to wear flat shoes in case she had to make a run for her life. And the family of Shoaib Umer, stranded here after its train home to Lahore was canceled Monday, spent the afternoon at the mausoleum of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, eating oranges.
The unknown had forced people to rethink their personal and professional calendars.
Hadi, a former teacher in New York who returned home four years ago to work for a reproductive health organization, said she had no idea whether the streets would be calm enough for her to go to work the next day. She feared for what she called "a complete breakdown in security," and was faced with a quandary: How to balance her craving for safety somewhere else with her loyalty to this country?
Hasan Zaidi, 38, a filmmaker, said he did not know when he could start shooting his picture. "It's a thriller, actually, but maybe it should've been a farce," he said. Already, he had postponed a film festival that he organizes in November every year, canceled an annual New Year's Eve ball and decided not to go ahead with his daughter's birthday party next weekend. There was no telling what could happen between now and then. She would be turning 2, and he hoped she would not feel the difference.
Sumaila Palla, 23, went shopping in search of an outfit to wear to her college graduation party in two weeks. "Hopefully," she said of the timing of her party, and then shrugged it off as normal. "People who live here, they're accustomed," she said. "They've succumbed."
Down the street, in a cafe that had opened for the first time in four days, a pair of entrepreneurs, laptops open, were busy at work on a marketing plan for an anti-littering campaign in Karachi. It was a strange enterprise at a time when the city was littered with hollowed, charred cars.
But Tooba Zarif Husain, 26, and Salman Yaqoob Raja, 25, were unbowed. They said they hoped things would return to normal in a few months, once the elections were over. Theirs were rare voices of confidence in the ability of President Pervez Musharraf to restore order.
"It is the history of Karachi that things go up and down, but people have a short memory," Raja said brightly. "They forget and get on with their lives."
By midafternoon, in the buzzing aisles of a supermarket called Agha, Bushra Zaidi was filling her cart with ingredients for enchiladas and Waldorf salad. Zaidi, the host of a cooking show on television, said her recording schedule had been thrown off by the violence of last week. She would have to tape 30 shows in five days.
In the same aisle, Sherry Rehman, a spokeswoman for Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party, was stocking up on rations to take back to Naudero, where senior party officials have huddled in Bhutto's country house since her death. Her cart was piled high with dried cherries and candles, mint tea and Pakistani pickles. She was looking for hairspray.
The party's central executive committee was to meet Wednesday evening in Naudero to discuss how to proceed on elections. It had pressed for holding the balloting next Tuesday, as scheduled, but government officials said the elections would be postponed till February. A new date is expected to be announced Wednesday.
As evening drew close and the sky turned golden, on the eighth floor of a Karachi office tower Munizeh Sanai, the disc jockey, put on her headphones and readied herself for her daily show, "The Rush Hour" on City FM 89.
"Hello, hello everybody," she crooned fast and sweet. "Strap on that seat belt, put on a smile, let me drive you home."
Sanai, 26, deliberated about what music would feel right tonight. "I want to keep it mellow but happy," she said. "People deserve a break."
She opened with a song by Belle and Sebastian, called "The Blues Are Still Blue."
For the last four days, it had been impossible to talk about anything but the assassination and the countless conspiracy theories it had spawned, and the subsequent ascension of Bhutto's 19-year-old son as the titular head of her party. "Do I really live in a place where politicians are that ridiculous?" she wondered aloud, as she picked out songs. "Yes, I do."
Sanai, who came home after graduating from Bennington College in Vermont, said she had already grown weary of trying to explain it to friends abroad.
Text messages came into the station. Someone wanted Led Zeppelin. "Hey M, we will get through this," said another. "Please don't stop the music."
She played "Don't Stop the Music," by Rihanna, a track from the latest Robbie Williams album and "The Waiting" by Tom Petty. Someone requested a song by Frou Frou called "Let Go." Someone else wrote: "Happy New Year. Please Play 'Long Road to Ruin.'"
She shook her head. "That's not nice," she said off the air. "That's not positive. No. It's loud. I'm not playing it."
The assassination coincided with one of the biggest rituals in her own life: her best friend's wedding, a multi-day event that began Tuesday evening. Sanai had selected a medley of songs to which a dance had been choreographed. Security had been increased. Earlier in the day she had tried on the outfit she had chosen for the wedding, stared at the mirror and wondered whether it was the most sensible choice. "Can I run if I need to?" she asked.
By Somini Sengupta | January 2, 2008
KARACHI, Pakistan: The highway that leads from Benazir Bhutto's ancestral village to this, her hometown, is one long road of ruin. Here and there along a stretch of 200 miles lie twisted hulks of tractor-trailers, their contents spilling out on the highway, casualties of the riots that broke out after Bhutto's assassination last Thursday.
On New Year's Eve, as the last light of 2007 fell from the sky, piles of coal still smoldered on the pavement. Rotten oranges littered the road. A consignment of pickup trucks that the United States had bought for Pakistani law enforcement officials fighting militants had been picked clean; brakes, steering wheels, batteries had been carted away.
The truck drivers, most of them ethnic Pashtuns from the faraway tribal areas of the northwest, waited in vain for rescue here in the southern ethnic Sindhi heartland. One of them had his left ear caked with blood; the mobs had pelted him with stones and then burned his coal truck, costing him his only source of income.
The road was a perfect emblem of the mood of this country, as it ushered in a new year under a thick shroud woven of rage and uncertainty.
"You don't know what the next day is going to bring," is how Sheena Hadi, 27, put it on New Year's morning here in Karachi. "We are in a gray area right now."
The gray pervades everything here, from the big, abstract questions about where the country is headed to the smallest, most mundane details of life.
Shops in Karachi, the city worst hit by the post-assassination violence, had been shuttered since Thursday evening. They opened for a few hours on Monday, only to close again amid rumors of another assassination. Those proved false, but under the present circumstances, when anything seemed possible, panic spread quickly, and residents scurried inside.
And so, as 2008 dawned and shops and restaurants opened, Seema Ahmed stepped out to do what she had never done in her 40 years in Karachi: stock up on food grains, in the event of another upheaval. Munizeh Sanai, a radio disc jockey, made sure to wear flat shoes in case she had to make a run for her life. And the family of Shoaib Umer, stranded here after its train home to Lahore was canceled Monday, spent the afternoon at the mausoleum of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, eating oranges.
The unknown had forced people to rethink their personal and professional calendars.
Hadi, a former teacher in New York who returned home four years ago to work for a reproductive health organization, said she had no idea whether the streets would be calm enough for her to go to work the next day. She feared for what she called "a complete breakdown in security," and was faced with a quandary: How to balance her craving for safety somewhere else with her loyalty to this country?
Hasan Zaidi, 38, a filmmaker, said he did not know when he could start shooting his picture. "It's a thriller, actually, but maybe it should've been a farce," he said. Already, he had postponed a film festival that he organizes in November every year, canceled an annual New Year's Eve ball and decided not to go ahead with his daughter's birthday party next weekend. There was no telling what could happen between now and then. She would be turning 2, and he hoped she would not feel the difference.
Sumaila Palla, 23, went shopping in search of an outfit to wear to her college graduation party in two weeks. "Hopefully," she said of the timing of her party, and then shrugged it off as normal. "People who live here, they're accustomed," she said. "They've succumbed."
Down the street, in a cafe that had opened for the first time in four days, a pair of entrepreneurs, laptops open, were busy at work on a marketing plan for an anti-littering campaign in Karachi. It was a strange enterprise at a time when the city was littered with hollowed, charred cars.
But Tooba Zarif Husain, 26, and Salman Yaqoob Raja, 25, were unbowed. They said they hoped things would return to normal in a few months, once the elections were over. Theirs were rare voices of confidence in the ability of President Pervez Musharraf to restore order.
"It is the history of Karachi that things go up and down, but people have a short memory," Raja said brightly. "They forget and get on with their lives."
By midafternoon, in the buzzing aisles of a supermarket called Agha, Bushra Zaidi was filling her cart with ingredients for enchiladas and Waldorf salad. Zaidi, the host of a cooking show on television, said her recording schedule had been thrown off by the violence of last week. She would have to tape 30 shows in five days.
In the same aisle, Sherry Rehman, a spokeswoman for Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party, was stocking up on rations to take back to Naudero, where senior party officials have huddled in Bhutto's country house since her death. Her cart was piled high with dried cherries and candles, mint tea and Pakistani pickles. She was looking for hairspray.
The party's central executive committee was to meet Wednesday evening in Naudero to discuss how to proceed on elections. It had pressed for holding the balloting next Tuesday, as scheduled, but government officials said the elections would be postponed till February. A new date is expected to be announced Wednesday.
As evening drew close and the sky turned golden, on the eighth floor of a Karachi office tower Munizeh Sanai, the disc jockey, put on her headphones and readied herself for her daily show, "The Rush Hour" on City FM 89.
"Hello, hello everybody," she crooned fast and sweet. "Strap on that seat belt, put on a smile, let me drive you home."
Sanai, 26, deliberated about what music would feel right tonight. "I want to keep it mellow but happy," she said. "People deserve a break."
She opened with a song by Belle and Sebastian, called "The Blues Are Still Blue."
For the last four days, it had been impossible to talk about anything but the assassination and the countless conspiracy theories it had spawned, and the subsequent ascension of Bhutto's 19-year-old son as the titular head of her party. "Do I really live in a place where politicians are that ridiculous?" she wondered aloud, as she picked out songs. "Yes, I do."
Sanai, who came home after graduating from Bennington College in Vermont, said she had already grown weary of trying to explain it to friends abroad.
Text messages came into the station. Someone wanted Led Zeppelin. "Hey M, we will get through this," said another. "Please don't stop the music."
She played "Don't Stop the Music," by Rihanna, a track from the latest Robbie Williams album and "The Waiting" by Tom Petty. Someone requested a song by Frou Frou called "Let Go." Someone else wrote: "Happy New Year. Please Play 'Long Road to Ruin.'"
She shook her head. "That's not nice," she said off the air. "That's not positive. No. It's loud. I'm not playing it."
The assassination coincided with one of the biggest rituals in her own life: her best friend's wedding, a multi-day event that began Tuesday evening. Sanai had selected a medley of songs to which a dance had been choreographed. Security had been increased. Earlier in the day she had tried on the outfit she had chosen for the wedding, stared at the mirror and wondered whether it was the most sensible choice. "Can I run if I need to?" she asked.
McClatchy : Bhutto report: Musharraf planned to fix elections
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Bhutto report: Musharraf planned to fix elections
By Saeed Shah | McClatchy Newspapers | December 31, 2007
NAUDERO, Pakistan — The day she was assassinated last Thursday, Benazir Bhutto had planned to reveal new evidence alleging the involvement of Pakistan's intelligence agencies in rigging the country's upcoming elections, an aide said Monday.
Bhutto had been due to meet U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., to hand over a report charging that the military Inter-Services Intelligence agency was planning to fix the polls in the favor of President Pervez Musharraf.
Safraz Khan Lashari, a member of the Pakistan People's Party election monitoring unit, said the report was "very sensitive" and that the party wanted to initially share it with trusted American politicians rather than the Bush administration, which is seen here as strongly backing Musharraf.
"It was compiled from sources within the (intelligence) services who were working directly with Benazir Bhutto," Lashari said, speaking Monday at Bhutto's house in her ancestral village of Naudero, where her husband and children continued to mourn her death.
The ISI had no official comment. However, an agency official, speaking only on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak on the subject, dismissed the allegations as "a lot of talk but not much substance."
Musharraf has been highly critical of those who allege that his regime is involved in electoral manipulation. "Now when they lose, they'll have a good rationale: that it is all rigged, it is all fraud," he said in November. "In Pakistan, the loser always cries."
According to Lashari, the document includes information on a "safe house" allegedly being run by the ISI in a central neighborhood of Islamabad, the alleged headquarters of the rigging operation.
It names as the head of the unit a brigadier general recently retired from the ISI, who was secretly assigned to run the rigging operation, Lashari said. It charges that he was working in tandem with the head of a civilian intelligence agency. Before her return to Pakistan, Bhutto, in a letter to Musharraf, had named the intelligence official as one of the men she accused of plotting to kill her.
Lashari said the report claimed that U.S. aid money was being used to fix the elections. Ballots stamped in favor of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, which supports Musharraf, were to be produced by the intelligence agencies in about 100 parliamentary constituencies.
"They diverted money from aid activities. We had evidence of where they were spending the money," Lashari said.
Lashari, who formerly taught environmental economics at Britain's Cranfield University, said the effort was directed at constituencies where the result was likely to be decided by a small margin, so it wouldn't be obvious.
Bhutto was due to meet Specter and Kennedy after dinner last Thursday. She was shot as she left an election rally in Rawalpindi early that evening. Pakistan's government claims instead that she was thrown against the lever of her car's sunroof, fracturing her skull.
(Shah is a McClatchy special correspondent.)
McClatchy Newspapers 2007
By Saeed Shah | McClatchy Newspapers | December 31, 2007
NAUDERO, Pakistan — The day she was assassinated last Thursday, Benazir Bhutto had planned to reveal new evidence alleging the involvement of Pakistan's intelligence agencies in rigging the country's upcoming elections, an aide said Monday.
Bhutto had been due to meet U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., to hand over a report charging that the military Inter-Services Intelligence agency was planning to fix the polls in the favor of President Pervez Musharraf.
Safraz Khan Lashari, a member of the Pakistan People's Party election monitoring unit, said the report was "very sensitive" and that the party wanted to initially share it with trusted American politicians rather than the Bush administration, which is seen here as strongly backing Musharraf.
"It was compiled from sources within the (intelligence) services who were working directly with Benazir Bhutto," Lashari said, speaking Monday at Bhutto's house in her ancestral village of Naudero, where her husband and children continued to mourn her death.
The ISI had no official comment. However, an agency official, speaking only on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak on the subject, dismissed the allegations as "a lot of talk but not much substance."
Musharraf has been highly critical of those who allege that his regime is involved in electoral manipulation. "Now when they lose, they'll have a good rationale: that it is all rigged, it is all fraud," he said in November. "In Pakistan, the loser always cries."
According to Lashari, the document includes information on a "safe house" allegedly being run by the ISI in a central neighborhood of Islamabad, the alleged headquarters of the rigging operation.
It names as the head of the unit a brigadier general recently retired from the ISI, who was secretly assigned to run the rigging operation, Lashari said. It charges that he was working in tandem with the head of a civilian intelligence agency. Before her return to Pakistan, Bhutto, in a letter to Musharraf, had named the intelligence official as one of the men she accused of plotting to kill her.
Lashari said the report claimed that U.S. aid money was being used to fix the elections. Ballots stamped in favor of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, which supports Musharraf, were to be produced by the intelligence agencies in about 100 parliamentary constituencies.
"They diverted money from aid activities. We had evidence of where they were spending the money," Lashari said.
Lashari, who formerly taught environmental economics at Britain's Cranfield University, said the effort was directed at constituencies where the result was likely to be decided by a small margin, so it wouldn't be obvious.
Bhutto was due to meet Specter and Kennedy after dinner last Thursday. She was shot as she left an election rally in Rawalpindi early that evening. Pakistan's government claims instead that she was thrown against the lever of her car's sunroof, fracturing her skull.
(Shah is a McClatchy special correspondent.)
McClatchy Newspapers 2007
Filed under
Benazir Bhutto,
elections,
Pervez Musharraf
by Winter Patriot
on Wednesday, January 02, 2008
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WaPo : Musharraf's Allies Want Vote Delayed
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Musharraf's Allies Want Vote Delayed
Elections Could Be Moved to February
By Griff Witte | Washington Post Foreign Service | January 1, 2008
KARACHI, Pakistan, Dec. 31 -- Long-awaited elections scheduled for next week are almost certain to be postponed Tuesday, a choice that rankles opposition leaders in Pakistan who want the vote held on time.
Government officials and politicians aligned with President Pervez Musharraf say the parliamentary elections need to be delayed by at least several weeks, and perhaps into February.
The delay is necessary, they say, to give the country time to recover after three days of rioting triggered by the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
"It should not be a long delay, but a delay that gives people the chance to calm down," said Tariq Azim Khan, spokesman for the main pro-Musharraf party.
Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the party of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif have opposed a delay, arguing that Musharraf and his allies are trying to stave off a landslide defeat.
Sharif said Monday he would call on his supporters to protest in the streets if the vote is postponed. He also demanded that Musharraf resign immediately. "Pervez Musharraf and Pakistan cannot go together," he said at a news conference.
Farhatullah Babar, spokesman for the PPP, said, "We will not accept a postponement."
Political analysts have predicted that a vote on Jan. 8 would yield a robust turnout for the PPP as the party rides a wave of sympathy following Bhutto's killing last Thursday.
Sharif's party was also projected to fare well, since it has taken a hard line against the deeply unpopular Musharraf. Both opposition groups have expressed concern that allies of Musharraf would try to rig the polls.
Zafarullah Khan, a lawyer and election monitor with Sharif's party, said in a letter to the election commission last week that Musharraf was planning a "display of power" and cited intelligence that "the firing of arms would be carried out on selected polling stations just to keep away opposing voters."
Musharraf has pledged that the elections will be free and fair.
U.S. officials said Monday they want the elections to proceed on schedule, but they also indicated willingness to accept a short delay.
"The key here is that there be a date certain for elections in Pakistan," said State Department spokesman Tom Casey. "We would certainly have concerns about some sort of indefinite postponement of the elections."
Correspondent Emily Wax in Islamabad contributed to this report.
Elections Could Be Moved to February
By Griff Witte | Washington Post Foreign Service | January 1, 2008
KARACHI, Pakistan, Dec. 31 -- Long-awaited elections scheduled for next week are almost certain to be postponed Tuesday, a choice that rankles opposition leaders in Pakistan who want the vote held on time.
Government officials and politicians aligned with President Pervez Musharraf say the parliamentary elections need to be delayed by at least several weeks, and perhaps into February.
The delay is necessary, they say, to give the country time to recover after three days of rioting triggered by the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
"It should not be a long delay, but a delay that gives people the chance to calm down," said Tariq Azim Khan, spokesman for the main pro-Musharraf party.
Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the party of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif have opposed a delay, arguing that Musharraf and his allies are trying to stave off a landslide defeat.
Sharif said Monday he would call on his supporters to protest in the streets if the vote is postponed. He also demanded that Musharraf resign immediately. "Pervez Musharraf and Pakistan cannot go together," he said at a news conference.
Farhatullah Babar, spokesman for the PPP, said, "We will not accept a postponement."
Political analysts have predicted that a vote on Jan. 8 would yield a robust turnout for the PPP as the party rides a wave of sympathy following Bhutto's killing last Thursday.
Sharif's party was also projected to fare well, since it has taken a hard line against the deeply unpopular Musharraf. Both opposition groups have expressed concern that allies of Musharraf would try to rig the polls.
Zafarullah Khan, a lawyer and election monitor with Sharif's party, said in a letter to the election commission last week that Musharraf was planning a "display of power" and cited intelligence that "the firing of arms would be carried out on selected polling stations just to keep away opposing voters."
Musharraf has pledged that the elections will be free and fair.
U.S. officials said Monday they want the elections to proceed on schedule, but they also indicated willingness to accept a short delay.
"The key here is that there be a date certain for elections in Pakistan," said State Department spokesman Tom Casey. "We would certainly have concerns about some sort of indefinite postponement of the elections."
Correspondent Emily Wax in Islamabad contributed to this report.
Filed under
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lawyers,
Nawaz Sharif,
Pakistan,
Pervez Musharraf,
Tariq Azim Khan
by Winter Patriot
on Tuesday, January 01, 2008
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WaPo : Pakistani Opposition Weighs Street Protests
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Pakistani Opposition Weighs Street Protests
Panel Yet to Set New Date For Elections That Could Further Weaken Musharraf
By Griff Witte and Emily Wax | Washington Post Foreign Service | January 2, 2008
KARACHI, Pakistan, Jan. 1 -- Opposition leaders on Tuesday debated whether to call mass street protests in response to a government decision to delay parliamentary elections that had been due next week, but now will be put off until sometime after Feb. 8.
Demonstrations are "not something we want to do. The country doesn't need more instability. It doesn't need more violence," said Sherry Rehman, spokeswoman for the Pakistan People's Party of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. "We're going to use demonstrations as a last resort. But if we're pushed to the wall, that's what we have to do."
Proposals to put off the vote have provoked furor from the parties opposed to President Pervez Musharraf. They charge that Musharraf and his allies are using Bhutto's assassination last Thursday as an excuse to try to avoid a landslide defeat.
The elections will determine the composition of parliament, as well as the new prime minister. The stakes are especially high for Musharraf because a new parliament could impeach him if opposition groups secure a two-thirds majority.
Officials at the country's Election Commission had been scheduled to officially announce the delay on Tuesday but put off the statement until Wednesday, saying at the same time that damage from recent rioting made it logistically impossible to hold the vote on schedule next Tuesday. Officials gave no new date, but said it would be after the Islamic holy month of Muharram, which ends Feb. 8.
The Pakistan People's Party is set to meet Wednesday to formally decide whether to call supporters to the streets in protest. If it does, there is a risk of further violence, just days after enraged Bhutto supporters went on a rampage in cities and towns across the country. The rioting caused tens of millions of dollars in damage and left more than 50 people dead.
Tariq Azim Khan, spokesman for the major pro-Musharraf party, said security forces had been slow to react last week because they wanted to allow Bhutto supporters to vent their rage over her death. But he said they would respond more forcefully the next time.
Khan blamed the rioting for the expected delay in the voting, saying that election commission offices were burned and that people were made to feel afraid. "So long as that feeling persists," Khan said, "you can't expect a fair turnout, which is essential for any election to be meaningful."
Khan said the elections were likely to be postponed until February, but not later.
Opposition parties have said they fear the government will use the threat of political violence -- ever-present in Pakistan -- to delay the elections indefinitely.
"A postponement will create another rough patch for the country," said political analyst Ayaz Amir, who is running for parliament on the ticket led by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. "Musharraf's group is afraid of the new mood sweeping the country, and they're looking for a way out."
Musharraf is due to address the nation Wednesday night, and he is expected to offer reasons why the elections should not go ahead next week.
He is also likely to discuss Bhutto's assassination, and aides said he may provide his answer to a rising chorus of demands for an internationally led investigation.
Bhutto was killed as she was leaving a daytime rally in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. The gun-and-bomb attack was caught on tape, and images have been broadcast around the world of a well-dressed, clean-shaven man with sunglasses walking up to her vehicle and apparently shooting her at close range.
Police have released photos of the alleged gunman's head, which was recovered from the crime scene after the man apparently died in the suicide blast that followed his shots. On Tuesday, they offered a reward for information leading to the man's identity.
Despite all the evidence, there is no consensus on how Bhutto died. The government said the day after the attack that she had not been shot but had hit her head on a sunroof lever due to the force of the explosion.
Government officials have since apologized for being crude in the way they described her death, but are sticking to their story.
Rehman said Tuesday that she helped bathe Bhutto's body before she was laid to rest and that there is no doubt she was shot. Still, the controversy persists because Bhutto was buried without an autopsy.
Pakistan's political turmoil, which has overshadowed everything else in the country, made for a muted first day of the new year. Many people here were pessimistic that 2008 will bring any calm.
"The country has already suffered so much. Can't we honor Bhutto's legacy by making peace?" said Muddassir Masood, 33, who works in the cellphone industry. "But everyone has an agenda now. Bhutto's party wants the election held because it will get the sympathy vote. The government knows that and wants to put it off. But as always, this is politics in Pakistan, and as always, it is the Pakistanis who will suffer if there is street violence."
Zia Kazim, 59, a pilot with Pakistan International Airlines who was having New Year's dinner with his wife, a hotel owner, said he was relieved that the couple's two adult children are living in Richmond, Va.
"There will be violence if the election is held on January 8th or violence if it's postponed. Basically the country is stuck in quicksand," he said. "Things in Pakistan are, unfortunately, only getting worse."
Wax reported from Islamabad. Special correspondent Shahzad Khurram in Rawalpindi contributed to this report.
Panel Yet to Set New Date For Elections That Could Further Weaken Musharraf
By Griff Witte and Emily Wax | Washington Post Foreign Service | January 2, 2008
KARACHI, Pakistan, Jan. 1 -- Opposition leaders on Tuesday debated whether to call mass street protests in response to a government decision to delay parliamentary elections that had been due next week, but now will be put off until sometime after Feb. 8.
Demonstrations are "not something we want to do. The country doesn't need more instability. It doesn't need more violence," said Sherry Rehman, spokeswoman for the Pakistan People's Party of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. "We're going to use demonstrations as a last resort. But if we're pushed to the wall, that's what we have to do."
Proposals to put off the vote have provoked furor from the parties opposed to President Pervez Musharraf. They charge that Musharraf and his allies are using Bhutto's assassination last Thursday as an excuse to try to avoid a landslide defeat.
The elections will determine the composition of parliament, as well as the new prime minister. The stakes are especially high for Musharraf because a new parliament could impeach him if opposition groups secure a two-thirds majority.
Officials at the country's Election Commission had been scheduled to officially announce the delay on Tuesday but put off the statement until Wednesday, saying at the same time that damage from recent rioting made it logistically impossible to hold the vote on schedule next Tuesday. Officials gave no new date, but said it would be after the Islamic holy month of Muharram, which ends Feb. 8.
The Pakistan People's Party is set to meet Wednesday to formally decide whether to call supporters to the streets in protest. If it does, there is a risk of further violence, just days after enraged Bhutto supporters went on a rampage in cities and towns across the country. The rioting caused tens of millions of dollars in damage and left more than 50 people dead.
Tariq Azim Khan, spokesman for the major pro-Musharraf party, said security forces had been slow to react last week because they wanted to allow Bhutto supporters to vent their rage over her death. But he said they would respond more forcefully the next time.
Khan blamed the rioting for the expected delay in the voting, saying that election commission offices were burned and that people were made to feel afraid. "So long as that feeling persists," Khan said, "you can't expect a fair turnout, which is essential for any election to be meaningful."
Khan said the elections were likely to be postponed until February, but not later.
Opposition parties have said they fear the government will use the threat of political violence -- ever-present in Pakistan -- to delay the elections indefinitely.
"A postponement will create another rough patch for the country," said political analyst Ayaz Amir, who is running for parliament on the ticket led by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. "Musharraf's group is afraid of the new mood sweeping the country, and they're looking for a way out."
Musharraf is due to address the nation Wednesday night, and he is expected to offer reasons why the elections should not go ahead next week.
He is also likely to discuss Bhutto's assassination, and aides said he may provide his answer to a rising chorus of demands for an internationally led investigation.
Bhutto was killed as she was leaving a daytime rally in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. The gun-and-bomb attack was caught on tape, and images have been broadcast around the world of a well-dressed, clean-shaven man with sunglasses walking up to her vehicle and apparently shooting her at close range.
Police have released photos of the alleged gunman's head, which was recovered from the crime scene after the man apparently died in the suicide blast that followed his shots. On Tuesday, they offered a reward for information leading to the man's identity.
Despite all the evidence, there is no consensus on how Bhutto died. The government said the day after the attack that she had not been shot but had hit her head on a sunroof lever due to the force of the explosion.
Government officials have since apologized for being crude in the way they described her death, but are sticking to their story.
Rehman said Tuesday that she helped bathe Bhutto's body before she was laid to rest and that there is no doubt she was shot. Still, the controversy persists because Bhutto was buried without an autopsy.
Pakistan's political turmoil, which has overshadowed everything else in the country, made for a muted first day of the new year. Many people here were pessimistic that 2008 will bring any calm.
"The country has already suffered so much. Can't we honor Bhutto's legacy by making peace?" said Muddassir Masood, 33, who works in the cellphone industry. "But everyone has an agenda now. Bhutto's party wants the election held because it will get the sympathy vote. The government knows that and wants to put it off. But as always, this is politics in Pakistan, and as always, it is the Pakistanis who will suffer if there is street violence."
Zia Kazim, 59, a pilot with Pakistan International Airlines who was having New Year's dinner with his wife, a hotel owner, said he was relieved that the couple's two adult children are living in Richmond, Va.
"There will be violence if the election is held on January 8th or violence if it's postponed. Basically the country is stuck in quicksand," he said. "Things in Pakistan are, unfortunately, only getting worse."
Wax reported from Islamabad. Special correspondent Shahzad Khurram in Rawalpindi contributed to this report.
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NYT : Pakistan Vote Delayed to February
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Pakistan Vote Delayed to February
By JANE PERLEZ | January 2, 2008
LAHORE, Pakistan — Parliamentary elections scheduled for Jan. 8 have been postponed by the government until February, the secretary of the Election Commission said Tuesday.
The election date is expected to be announced formally on Wednesday, and President Pervez Musharraf is scheduled to address to the nation that evening.
The timing of the elections and how the news of the delay is received could be critical to Pakistan’s stability. The two main opposition parties have threatened continuous protests against the government over the delay.
Members of Mr. Musharraf’s faction of the Pakistan Muslim League acknowledged in the last several days that the elections could not be delayed for more than six weeks without risking fresh outbreaks of violence. “Six weeks is just about the outer limit before the frustration really hurts Musharraf,” said a member of the president’s faction.
The Election Commission secretary, Kunwar Muhammad Dilshad, said it would not be possible to hold the elections next Tuesday because the printing of ballot papers had stopped after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the opposition leader, and rioters had damaged election offices in Sindh Province.
“In 11 districts of the Sindh Province, offices of assistant election commissioners have been burnt to the ground,” he said. “Nothing is left.”
Mr. Dilshad defended the delay, saying it was the first time in Pakistan’s history that an election had been postponed after the date had been announced.
But opposition party members and Western diplomats said the decision to push the election into February was largely intended to deprive the two main opposition parties of a huge sympathy vote after Ms. Bhutto’s death on Thursday.
Her party, the Pakistan Peoples Party, is now led by her son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, 19, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari. The other, somewhat smaller, main opposition party, the faction of the Pakistan Muslim League led by Nawaz Sharif, said it was ready to participate in the vote on Jan. 8.
President Musharraf’s party wanted to try to recoup some of its plummeting popularity and to let the sympathy toward the opposition parties wear off, the opposition party officials said.
What form opposition protests of the delay would take was on the agenda of a central executive committee meeting on Wednesday of the Pakistan Peoples Party, said Raza Rabbani, a member of the panel.
“This question of agitation and what line of action” will be discussed, Mr. Rabbani said. “We do not want to move in isolation. We would talk to other opposition parties on a course of action.”
A February voting date would probably be acceptable to the Bush administration, even though the Americans have been pushing for elections on schedule, the member of Mr. Musharraf’s party faction said.
The February date for the election was also influenced by a desire not to hold the elections during Muharram, the annual festival for Shiite Muslims that begins Jan. 10.
The festival is often an occasion for sectarian violence in Pakistan, and party officials of both the government and the opposition agreed that Muharram was not a suitable time for elections. The elections could have been held on Jan. 22 or 23 after the most important part of the festival was over, but the government chose a later date, officials said.
Furor continues over the Musharraf government’s assertion that Ms. Bhutto died not from gunfire or shrapnel from a suicide bomber’s explosion on Thursday, but from striking her head as she tried to duck during the attack. Many of her supporters blame the government for her death, some accusing it of poor security and others of outright complicity.
On Tuesday, an aide to Ms. Bhutto, Senator Latif Khosa, said Ms. Bhutto had been planning to give two visiting American lawmakers a 160-page report accusing the Musharraf government of taking steps to rig the Jan. 8 vote, according to The Associated Press. The meeting, with Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Representative Patrick J. Kennedy of Rhode Island, was scheduled for a few hours after she was killed.
Anger over Ms. Bhutto’s death has added to growing disenchantment with the government over other issues, including increased terrorism attacks.
With its decision to postpone the elections, the government risks increased polarization, said a Western diplomat, who added that people would see the delay for what it really was.
The problems of burned electoral offices in Sindh were easy to remedy in a nation with more than 100 electoral offices, the diplomat said.
At the same time the government delayed the election, it extended the detention of Aitzaz Ahsan, the leader of the opposition lawyers’ movement.
Mr. Ahsan was arrested on Nov. 3, the first night of the emergency rule, which Mr. Musharraf lifted in mid-December. He was presented with new detention papers ordering him to remain under house arrest for another month, his son, Ali Ahsan, said Tuesday.
Eric Schmitt contributed reporting from Washington.
By JANE PERLEZ | January 2, 2008
LAHORE, Pakistan — Parliamentary elections scheduled for Jan. 8 have been postponed by the government until February, the secretary of the Election Commission said Tuesday.
The election date is expected to be announced formally on Wednesday, and President Pervez Musharraf is scheduled to address to the nation that evening.
The timing of the elections and how the news of the delay is received could be critical to Pakistan’s stability. The two main opposition parties have threatened continuous protests against the government over the delay.
Members of Mr. Musharraf’s faction of the Pakistan Muslim League acknowledged in the last several days that the elections could not be delayed for more than six weeks without risking fresh outbreaks of violence. “Six weeks is just about the outer limit before the frustration really hurts Musharraf,” said a member of the president’s faction.
The Election Commission secretary, Kunwar Muhammad Dilshad, said it would not be possible to hold the elections next Tuesday because the printing of ballot papers had stopped after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the opposition leader, and rioters had damaged election offices in Sindh Province.
“In 11 districts of the Sindh Province, offices of assistant election commissioners have been burnt to the ground,” he said. “Nothing is left.”
Mr. Dilshad defended the delay, saying it was the first time in Pakistan’s history that an election had been postponed after the date had been announced.
But opposition party members and Western diplomats said the decision to push the election into February was largely intended to deprive the two main opposition parties of a huge sympathy vote after Ms. Bhutto’s death on Thursday.
Her party, the Pakistan Peoples Party, is now led by her son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, 19, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari. The other, somewhat smaller, main opposition party, the faction of the Pakistan Muslim League led by Nawaz Sharif, said it was ready to participate in the vote on Jan. 8.
President Musharraf’s party wanted to try to recoup some of its plummeting popularity and to let the sympathy toward the opposition parties wear off, the opposition party officials said.
What form opposition protests of the delay would take was on the agenda of a central executive committee meeting on Wednesday of the Pakistan Peoples Party, said Raza Rabbani, a member of the panel.
“This question of agitation and what line of action” will be discussed, Mr. Rabbani said. “We do not want to move in isolation. We would talk to other opposition parties on a course of action.”
A February voting date would probably be acceptable to the Bush administration, even though the Americans have been pushing for elections on schedule, the member of Mr. Musharraf’s party faction said.
The February date for the election was also influenced by a desire not to hold the elections during Muharram, the annual festival for Shiite Muslims that begins Jan. 10.
The festival is often an occasion for sectarian violence in Pakistan, and party officials of both the government and the opposition agreed that Muharram was not a suitable time for elections. The elections could have been held on Jan. 22 or 23 after the most important part of the festival was over, but the government chose a later date, officials said.
Furor continues over the Musharraf government’s assertion that Ms. Bhutto died not from gunfire or shrapnel from a suicide bomber’s explosion on Thursday, but from striking her head as she tried to duck during the attack. Many of her supporters blame the government for her death, some accusing it of poor security and others of outright complicity.
On Tuesday, an aide to Ms. Bhutto, Senator Latif Khosa, said Ms. Bhutto had been planning to give two visiting American lawmakers a 160-page report accusing the Musharraf government of taking steps to rig the Jan. 8 vote, according to The Associated Press. The meeting, with Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Representative Patrick J. Kennedy of Rhode Island, was scheduled for a few hours after she was killed.
Anger over Ms. Bhutto’s death has added to growing disenchantment with the government over other issues, including increased terrorism attacks.
With its decision to postpone the elections, the government risks increased polarization, said a Western diplomat, who added that people would see the delay for what it really was.
The problems of burned electoral offices in Sindh were easy to remedy in a nation with more than 100 electoral offices, the diplomat said.
At the same time the government delayed the election, it extended the detention of Aitzaz Ahsan, the leader of the opposition lawyers’ movement.
Mr. Ahsan was arrested on Nov. 3, the first night of the emergency rule, which Mr. Musharraf lifted in mid-December. He was presented with new detention papers ordering him to remain under house arrest for another month, his son, Ali Ahsan, said Tuesday.
Eric Schmitt contributed reporting from Washington.
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The Post : Benazir ready to bury differences with Nawaz
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Benazir ready to bury differences with Nawaz
December 20, 2007
NAWABSHAH: PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto has said her differences with Nawaz Sharif are now a thing of the past and she will work jointly with PML-N Chief for restoration of democracy in the country.
"I will bury all the differences with Nawaz Sharif and work jointly with him for revival of democratic process in the country. I will strive in unison with Nawaz Sharif after elections that journey to democracy should continue uninterrupted. Differences with Nawaz Sharif are now thing of past. Our political ideologies are diverse and differences are there but we are united to save the country and restore democracy in the country", she said this while addressing a public meeting here on Wednesday. "People criticise us that we will stage demonstrations against each other. We will not engage in any conflict against each other", she added. She questioned how the master mind of London plane plot case Rashid Rauf escaped. He escaped because uniform was not being used for the sake of nation and it was being used to make the parties, she added.
Without naming PML-Q she said they are political orphans. PML-Q wanted emergency not to be lifted from the country and President Musharraf should be re-elected in uniform. But they failed in their designs. President delivered his promise. Emergency was lifted. Now president and army chief were working separately, she added.
People will foil rigging plan at every cost, she said adding people will chase ballot boxes on January 8. President Musharraf had promised us that elections would be held in transparent manner, she pointed out.
December 20, 2007
NAWABSHAH: PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto has said her differences with Nawaz Sharif are now a thing of the past and she will work jointly with PML-N Chief for restoration of democracy in the country.
"I will bury all the differences with Nawaz Sharif and work jointly with him for revival of democratic process in the country. I will strive in unison with Nawaz Sharif after elections that journey to democracy should continue uninterrupted. Differences with Nawaz Sharif are now thing of past. Our political ideologies are diverse and differences are there but we are united to save the country and restore democracy in the country", she said this while addressing a public meeting here on Wednesday. "People criticise us that we will stage demonstrations against each other. We will not engage in any conflict against each other", she added. She questioned how the master mind of London plane plot case Rashid Rauf escaped. He escaped because uniform was not being used for the sake of nation and it was being used to make the parties, she added.
Without naming PML-Q she said they are political orphans. PML-Q wanted emergency not to be lifted from the country and President Musharraf should be re-elected in uniform. But they failed in their designs. President delivered his promise. Emergency was lifted. Now president and army chief were working separately, she added.
People will foil rigging plan at every cost, she said adding people will chase ballot boxes on January 8. President Musharraf had promised us that elections would be held in transparent manner, she pointed out.
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WaPo : Musharraf Lifts Emergency Rule in Pakistan
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Musharraf Lifts Emergency Rule in Pakistan
By Griff Witte | Washington Post Foreign Service | December 15, 2007
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Dec. 15 -- President Pervez Musharraf on Saturday lifted emergency rule in Pakistan, six weeks to the day after he suspended the constitution and fired most of the Supreme Court.
The decision to end the emergency had little tangible impact. Numerous top judges remained under house arrest Saturday, the media continued to work under a restrictive new code of conduct and the nation hurtled toward parliamentary elections early next month that are widely expected to be rigged.
But an end to the emergency had been a key demand of the United States and other Western countries, which have been pressuring Musharraf to guide the country back toward democracy.
Before lifting the emergency, Musharraf enacted constitutional amendments designed to provide legal cover for his actions on Nov. 3. Late that night, he announced in a nationwide address that, as Pakistan's army chief, he was granting himself emergency powers. Since then, he has used those powers to consolidate his control, with his government rounding up thousands of dissidents and violently suppressing protests. Musharraf stepped down as head of the army late last month.
Saturday's amendments are unlikely to deter Musharraf's rivals: Opposition politicians have said they will push to have Musharraf impeached, and some have vowed to pursue treason charges against the former general.
Even critics concede that the emergency has worked for Musharraf -- at least in the short term. At the time of the announcement last month, the Supreme Court was hearing a challenge to Musharraf's eligibility to serve another term as president. Many, including members of Musharraf's inner circle, expected the court to rule against him.
Now the court is packed with Musharraf loyalists, who have already given the president their blessing for a term that would last until 2012. The opposition, meanwhile, has been unable to mount a united front to challenge him.
But analysts say the emergency could still haunt Musharraf down the line.
"In the narrow sense, it has been successful for him," said Talat Masood, a retired general and political analyst. "But in the long term, it has damaged him immensely. He has lost his popularity. He has lost his credibility. People are not going to accept him, except under duress."
By Griff Witte | Washington Post Foreign Service | December 15, 2007
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Dec. 15 -- President Pervez Musharraf on Saturday lifted emergency rule in Pakistan, six weeks to the day after he suspended the constitution and fired most of the Supreme Court.
The decision to end the emergency had little tangible impact. Numerous top judges remained under house arrest Saturday, the media continued to work under a restrictive new code of conduct and the nation hurtled toward parliamentary elections early next month that are widely expected to be rigged.
But an end to the emergency had been a key demand of the United States and other Western countries, which have been pressuring Musharraf to guide the country back toward democracy.
Before lifting the emergency, Musharraf enacted constitutional amendments designed to provide legal cover for his actions on Nov. 3. Late that night, he announced in a nationwide address that, as Pakistan's army chief, he was granting himself emergency powers. Since then, he has used those powers to consolidate his control, with his government rounding up thousands of dissidents and violently suppressing protests. Musharraf stepped down as head of the army late last month.
Saturday's amendments are unlikely to deter Musharraf's rivals: Opposition politicians have said they will push to have Musharraf impeached, and some have vowed to pursue treason charges against the former general.
Even critics concede that the emergency has worked for Musharraf -- at least in the short term. At the time of the announcement last month, the Supreme Court was hearing a challenge to Musharraf's eligibility to serve another term as president. Many, including members of Musharraf's inner circle, expected the court to rule against him.
Now the court is packed with Musharraf loyalists, who have already given the president their blessing for a term that would last until 2012. The opposition, meanwhile, has been unable to mount a united front to challenge him.
But analysts say the emergency could still haunt Musharraf down the line.
"In the narrow sense, it has been successful for him," said Talat Masood, a retired general and political analyst. "But in the long term, it has damaged him immensely. He has lost his popularity. He has lost his credibility. People are not going to accept him, except under duress."
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NYT : Musharraf Lifts State of Emergency in Pakistan
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Musharraf Lifts State of Emergency in Pakistan
By CARLOTTA GALL | December 15, 2007
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — President Pervez Musharraf lifted the six-week-old state of emergency and restored the Constitution on Saturday, after passing a flurry of constitutional amendments and decrees to ensure his recent actions would not be challenged by any court.
The removal of the state of emergency restores such fundamental rights as the right of assembly and freedom of movement just three weeks ahead of parliamentary elections and would help ensure that elections are free and fair, said the acting law minister, Afzal Haider. Mr. Musharraf also took oaths from 14 loyal judges on the new Supreme Court on Saturday afternoon, permanently replacing the Supreme Court he dismissed Nov. 3.
In repealing the state of emergency, which many here describe as de facto martial law, Mr. Musharraf has completed a number of steps demanded by his critics at home and abroad, and by the Bush administration, to return the country to the path to democracy. On Nov. 28 he resigned his military post of chief of army staff, ending eight years of military rule.
Yet the lifting of emergency rule will not resolve the tensions in the country, in particular between a large part of the judiciary and the president. Mr. Musharraf’s recent decrees have effectively muzzled the press, curbed the judiciary and made him impregnable before the parliament and the courts, yet they have created deep divisions in society and will further destabilize the country, a group of former ambassadors and foreign secretaries said in an open letter to news organizations.
In a clear move to protect himself from future legal challenges, Mr. Musharraf included in his executive order restoring the Constitution that any provision made during the last six weeks of emergency rule “shall not be called in question by or before any court.” A second order revoking the proclamation of emergency allows the president to issue future orders should problems of implementation arise, which also could not be challenged in any court. Presidential orders usually lapse after three months unless ratified by Parliament, but if issued under a state of emergency they automatically become law.
Under Pakistan’s Constitution, a period of emergency rule usually has to be indemnified by Parliament, yet Mr. Musharraf’s order also appeared to pre-empt any future challenge from Parliament. The latest presidential orders do not need to be ratified by Parliament, because they were introduced under the emergency, Mr. Haider said.
Six constitutional amendments were passed late Friday night, strengthening Mr. Musharraf’s legal position regarding his Oct. 6 re-election and his dismissal of the Supreme Court Nov. 3. Two amendments cleared away discrepancies in the Constitution that had been used by constitutional lawyers in their arguments challenging Mr. Musharraf’s eligibility to run for another presidential term. Another constitutional amendment confirms that the former judges of the Supreme Court who had not taken a new oath under the state of emergency could no longer continue in their jobs, and that the newly sworn judges would replace them. Another amendment created a new High Court, based in the capital, Islamabad, in addition to the existing four provincial high courts.
The amendments were immediately criticized by lawyers. Five judges of the former Supreme Court, including the chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, remain detained incommunicado in their official houses close to the president’s office. The four senior lawyers, who have spearheaded the campaign to challenge Mr. Musharraf’s Oct. 6 election to another term, are also under house arrest. Lawyers across the country are boycotting the courts and refusing to work before judges who took a new oath under the emergency, virtually paralyzing judicial proceedings.
Concern about the general stability of the country prompted 23 former ambassadors and foreign secretaries to sign a statement this week calling for Mr. Musharraf to reverse all the steps he has taken since imposing de facto martial law. They pointed out the previous Supreme Court ruled the state of emergency illegal before it was dismissed and its judges placed under house arrest.
“These steps which amount to martial law are unconstitutional and illegal,” the statement said. “Besides undermining the rule of law and delivering a severe blow to the independence of the judiciary, they have dangerously destabilized the country. They also have incurred international opprobrium and badly tarnished Pakistan’s image.” The signatories called on political parties contesting elections to make the reinstatement of the former judges of the Supreme Court and provincial High Courts a top priority.
Mr. Musharraf also signed an ordinance Friday giving him as chairman of the National Command Authority overall responsibility for safeguarding Pakistan’s nuclear material and establishments. The move was only formalizing a system of control set up five years ago, said Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad, a military spokesman, yet it was another sign that Mr. Musharraf is trying to ensure a continued prominent role for himself as president.
Under Pakistan’s parliamentary system of government, the prime minister is traditionally the position of executive power in the country. Yet under repeated periods of military rule, the president has acquired additional powers, including the power to dismiss Parliament and the elected government. The president also chairs the National Security Council, a body created by Mr. Musharraf.
Five people were killed and six were injured by a suicide bomber on a bicycle Saturday at the gate of an army garrison in the northwestern town of Nowshera. It was the third suicide bombing in the country in two days. Three civilians and two army personnel were killed, General Arshad.
By CARLOTTA GALL | December 15, 2007
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — President Pervez Musharraf lifted the six-week-old state of emergency and restored the Constitution on Saturday, after passing a flurry of constitutional amendments and decrees to ensure his recent actions would not be challenged by any court.
The removal of the state of emergency restores such fundamental rights as the right of assembly and freedom of movement just three weeks ahead of parliamentary elections and would help ensure that elections are free and fair, said the acting law minister, Afzal Haider. Mr. Musharraf also took oaths from 14 loyal judges on the new Supreme Court on Saturday afternoon, permanently replacing the Supreme Court he dismissed Nov. 3.
In repealing the state of emergency, which many here describe as de facto martial law, Mr. Musharraf has completed a number of steps demanded by his critics at home and abroad, and by the Bush administration, to return the country to the path to democracy. On Nov. 28 he resigned his military post of chief of army staff, ending eight years of military rule.
Yet the lifting of emergency rule will not resolve the tensions in the country, in particular between a large part of the judiciary and the president. Mr. Musharraf’s recent decrees have effectively muzzled the press, curbed the judiciary and made him impregnable before the parliament and the courts, yet they have created deep divisions in society and will further destabilize the country, a group of former ambassadors and foreign secretaries said in an open letter to news organizations.
In a clear move to protect himself from future legal challenges, Mr. Musharraf included in his executive order restoring the Constitution that any provision made during the last six weeks of emergency rule “shall not be called in question by or before any court.” A second order revoking the proclamation of emergency allows the president to issue future orders should problems of implementation arise, which also could not be challenged in any court. Presidential orders usually lapse after three months unless ratified by Parliament, but if issued under a state of emergency they automatically become law.
Under Pakistan’s Constitution, a period of emergency rule usually has to be indemnified by Parliament, yet Mr. Musharraf’s order also appeared to pre-empt any future challenge from Parliament. The latest presidential orders do not need to be ratified by Parliament, because they were introduced under the emergency, Mr. Haider said.
Six constitutional amendments were passed late Friday night, strengthening Mr. Musharraf’s legal position regarding his Oct. 6 re-election and his dismissal of the Supreme Court Nov. 3. Two amendments cleared away discrepancies in the Constitution that had been used by constitutional lawyers in their arguments challenging Mr. Musharraf’s eligibility to run for another presidential term. Another constitutional amendment confirms that the former judges of the Supreme Court who had not taken a new oath under the state of emergency could no longer continue in their jobs, and that the newly sworn judges would replace them. Another amendment created a new High Court, based in the capital, Islamabad, in addition to the existing four provincial high courts.
The amendments were immediately criticized by lawyers. Five judges of the former Supreme Court, including the chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, remain detained incommunicado in their official houses close to the president’s office. The four senior lawyers, who have spearheaded the campaign to challenge Mr. Musharraf’s Oct. 6 election to another term, are also under house arrest. Lawyers across the country are boycotting the courts and refusing to work before judges who took a new oath under the emergency, virtually paralyzing judicial proceedings.
Concern about the general stability of the country prompted 23 former ambassadors and foreign secretaries to sign a statement this week calling for Mr. Musharraf to reverse all the steps he has taken since imposing de facto martial law. They pointed out the previous Supreme Court ruled the state of emergency illegal before it was dismissed and its judges placed under house arrest.
“These steps which amount to martial law are unconstitutional and illegal,” the statement said. “Besides undermining the rule of law and delivering a severe blow to the independence of the judiciary, they have dangerously destabilized the country. They also have incurred international opprobrium and badly tarnished Pakistan’s image.” The signatories called on political parties contesting elections to make the reinstatement of the former judges of the Supreme Court and provincial High Courts a top priority.
Mr. Musharraf also signed an ordinance Friday giving him as chairman of the National Command Authority overall responsibility for safeguarding Pakistan’s nuclear material and establishments. The move was only formalizing a system of control set up five years ago, said Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad, a military spokesman, yet it was another sign that Mr. Musharraf is trying to ensure a continued prominent role for himself as president.
Under Pakistan’s parliamentary system of government, the prime minister is traditionally the position of executive power in the country. Yet under repeated periods of military rule, the president has acquired additional powers, including the power to dismiss Parliament and the elected government. The president also chairs the National Security Council, a body created by Mr. Musharraf.
Five people were killed and six were injured by a suicide bomber on a bicycle Saturday at the gate of an army garrison in the northwestern town of Nowshera. It was the third suicide bombing in the country in two days. Three civilians and two army personnel were killed, General Arshad.
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IHT : Most Pakistanis want Musharraf to quit, poll shows
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Most Pakistanis want Musharraf to quit, poll shows
By David Rohde and Carlotta Gall | Thursday, December 13, 2007
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The first comprehensive public opinion poll conducted in Pakistan since President Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency last month has found that 67 percent of Pakistanis want him to resign immediately and that 70 percent say his government does not deserve re-election.
The poll suggests that Musharraf will have to engage in substantial vote rigging to have the government of his choice win national elections on Jan. 8.
The survey also calls into question the view in the United States of Musharraf as a leader who can effectively rule Pakistan and deliver in the campaign against terrorism. And it suggests that civil unrest could erupt if Musharraf were to win the election.
The poll was conducted by the International Republican Institute, a nonprofit group based in Washington that is affiliated with the Republican Party and promotes democracy abroad. The results were provided to The New York Times before their release on Thursday.
Pakistan's two main opposition leaders, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, each a former prime minister, are already accusing Musharraf of fixing the vote in advance and vowing protests if he prevails.
"If elections are rigged, we are going to need to be in a position like the people of Ukraine were, to protest those elections," Bhutto said at a news conference last week. "A plan is under way to rig the elections, and to stop progress towards democracy."
On Nov. 3, Musharraf declared a state of emergency, abrogated Pakistan's Constitution, fired the Supreme Court, blacked out the independent news channels and arrested more than 5,000 of his opponents. Since then, most prisoners have been released and Musharraf has resigned from his post as army chief, but his actions have "polarized" Pakistani society, according to the poll.
Two-thirds of those surveyed "expressed anger at the current state of affairs, desired change and were anti-Musharraf," the institute said. And one third "remained supportive of President Musharraf and were positive about the condition of the country."
An American-backed proposal that Musharraf form a government with Bhutto also appears to be deeply unpopular. Sixty percent of Pakistanis polled opposed such a deal, which American officials had hoped would bolster support for Musharraf.
Instead, 58 percent said they would support a "Grand Opposition Alliance" among Bhutto, Sharif and other parties against Musharraf, a former general who seized power in a 1999 coup. Fifty-six percent said the army, which has intermittently ruled Pakistan since it won independence from Britain 60 years ago, should have no role in civilian government.
If Bhutto and Sharif do not form an alliance, the country appears to be headed toward a hung Parliament, according to the poll. Asked which party they would support in elections, 30 percent of those polled said they would support Bhutto's party, 25 percent named Sharif's and 23 percent favored Musharraf's.
The poll was based on the responses of 3,520 randomly selected men and women from across Pakistan, according to the institute. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.69 percentage points.
"If they did unite, they would put themselves in a much stronger position," said Robert Varsalone, the institute's country director, referring to Bhutto and Sharif.
But the two are bitter personal rivals and, according to Pakistani political analysts, unlikely to be able to form a government together. They predicted continued political instability if no party wins the vote decisively, with Musharraf, Bhutto and Sharif all vying to cobble together governing coalitions with smaller parties.
The poll also identified several worrying trends for Musharraf's party. Seventy percent of Pakistanis said they felt the country was headed in the wrong direction and 51 percent said their personal economic situation had worsened. And Sharif, who returned to Pakistan from exile two weeks ago, appears to be drawing center-right voters away from Musharraf, a key source of his support.
Pakistani and Western observers warn that clear signs already exist that Musharraf and his supporters are manipulating the election. They fear a repeat of nationwide elections won by Musharraf's party in 2002.
"It was Pakistan's most rigged election," said Ijaz Gilani, chairman of Gallup Pakistan, an Islamabad-based polling and research firm. "Never in our history have we had so much pre-poll and post-poll rigging."
The irregularities were numerous, according to the opposition and observers, including education requirements that knocked opposition candidates off the ballot and the severe gerrymandering of districts in favor of Musharraf's supporters. Long before the race, Bhutto and Sharif had been forced into exile, weakening the ability of their parties to function.
As the race approached, Musharraf took over much of Sharif's party, the Pakistan Muslim League. He also passed a requirement that all candidates have a university degree, a measure that knocked some of Bhutto's and Sharif's strongest candidates off the ballot.
Ikram Sehgal, a defense analyst and retired army pilot who runs a security company, said government and intelligence officials also engaged in "post-poll rigging," pressing successful candidates from other parties to defect.
"They would say: 'You have not paid your taxes, here are the bills. These are the corruption cases against you,' " he said.
This year, the country's election commission, judiciary and local governments are all run by officials loyal to Musharraf. Analysts say the president has used the state of emergency to create an electoral playing field that favors his candidates, constraining media coverage, public rallies and the length of the campaign.
The dismissal and continued detention of Supreme Court and High Court judges "sent a very strong signal" that election results could not be appealed, according an election observer who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Instead of the standard 60-day campaign, candidates will have only three weeks after emergency rule, which is expected to end this weekend. Restrictions will remain against rallies and processions, which are only permitted in proscribed places.
And Musharraf has muzzled the country's news media, barring live coverage of election rallies and popular political talk shows. Under a new ordinance unilaterally enacted by Musharraf under emergency rule, television journalists face up to three years in jail for broadcasting "anything which defames or brings into ridicule the head of state."
In a letter to stations on Monday, government officials accused them of airing live telephone calls from the public that contained "baseless propaganda against Pakistan and incite people to violence." If the practice continued, they said, station owners and journalists could be jailed.
Fears also exist that government resources are being used in favor of election candidates. The nazim, or district mayor, who controls the local government officials running polling stations, can oversee rigging, Sehgal said. Opposition parties have demanded they be replaced by neutral officials during the election campaign.
Sehgal also said law enforcement agencies could shutter polling stations where opposition candidates were expected to do well on the pretext that there were disturbances. "The police find out where they could lose a polling station and they close it early," he said. "And they put the votes of their party in the box."
And after ballots are cast, there are concerns about how the vote will be tallied, according to the election observer. Political party observers may be barred from election centers where results from across the constituency will be totaled. "It's a huge deficiency," he said.
On Wednesday, Aitzaz Ahsan, a top lawyer who has been under house arrest during the state of emergency was imposed, announced that he was pulling out of the election, in deference to the lawyers who have sought a boycott of elections until the former Supreme Court is restored.
He and other lawyers predict the vote will be rigged. Sehgal estimates that Pervez Elahi, the former chief minister of Punjab Province and the leading candidate from Musharraf's party, can secure 100 seats in Punjab by virtue of his control of government machinery there.
Without rigging, he would only get 45 to 50 seats, he said. Gilani said his polling has shown 20 percent support for Musharraf's party after the emergency.
By David Rohde and Carlotta Gall | Thursday, December 13, 2007
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The first comprehensive public opinion poll conducted in Pakistan since President Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency last month has found that 67 percent of Pakistanis want him to resign immediately and that 70 percent say his government does not deserve re-election.
The poll suggests that Musharraf will have to engage in substantial vote rigging to have the government of his choice win national elections on Jan. 8.
The survey also calls into question the view in the United States of Musharraf as a leader who can effectively rule Pakistan and deliver in the campaign against terrorism. And it suggests that civil unrest could erupt if Musharraf were to win the election.
The poll was conducted by the International Republican Institute, a nonprofit group based in Washington that is affiliated with the Republican Party and promotes democracy abroad. The results were provided to The New York Times before their release on Thursday.
Pakistan's two main opposition leaders, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, each a former prime minister, are already accusing Musharraf of fixing the vote in advance and vowing protests if he prevails.
"If elections are rigged, we are going to need to be in a position like the people of Ukraine were, to protest those elections," Bhutto said at a news conference last week. "A plan is under way to rig the elections, and to stop progress towards democracy."
On Nov. 3, Musharraf declared a state of emergency, abrogated Pakistan's Constitution, fired the Supreme Court, blacked out the independent news channels and arrested more than 5,000 of his opponents. Since then, most prisoners have been released and Musharraf has resigned from his post as army chief, but his actions have "polarized" Pakistani society, according to the poll.
Two-thirds of those surveyed "expressed anger at the current state of affairs, desired change and were anti-Musharraf," the institute said. And one third "remained supportive of President Musharraf and were positive about the condition of the country."
An American-backed proposal that Musharraf form a government with Bhutto also appears to be deeply unpopular. Sixty percent of Pakistanis polled opposed such a deal, which American officials had hoped would bolster support for Musharraf.
Instead, 58 percent said they would support a "Grand Opposition Alliance" among Bhutto, Sharif and other parties against Musharraf, a former general who seized power in a 1999 coup. Fifty-six percent said the army, which has intermittently ruled Pakistan since it won independence from Britain 60 years ago, should have no role in civilian government.
If Bhutto and Sharif do not form an alliance, the country appears to be headed toward a hung Parliament, according to the poll. Asked which party they would support in elections, 30 percent of those polled said they would support Bhutto's party, 25 percent named Sharif's and 23 percent favored Musharraf's.
The poll was based on the responses of 3,520 randomly selected men and women from across Pakistan, according to the institute. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.69 percentage points.
"If they did unite, they would put themselves in a much stronger position," said Robert Varsalone, the institute's country director, referring to Bhutto and Sharif.
But the two are bitter personal rivals and, according to Pakistani political analysts, unlikely to be able to form a government together. They predicted continued political instability if no party wins the vote decisively, with Musharraf, Bhutto and Sharif all vying to cobble together governing coalitions with smaller parties.
The poll also identified several worrying trends for Musharraf's party. Seventy percent of Pakistanis said they felt the country was headed in the wrong direction and 51 percent said their personal economic situation had worsened. And Sharif, who returned to Pakistan from exile two weeks ago, appears to be drawing center-right voters away from Musharraf, a key source of his support.
Pakistani and Western observers warn that clear signs already exist that Musharraf and his supporters are manipulating the election. They fear a repeat of nationwide elections won by Musharraf's party in 2002.
"It was Pakistan's most rigged election," said Ijaz Gilani, chairman of Gallup Pakistan, an Islamabad-based polling and research firm. "Never in our history have we had so much pre-poll and post-poll rigging."
The irregularities were numerous, according to the opposition and observers, including education requirements that knocked opposition candidates off the ballot and the severe gerrymandering of districts in favor of Musharraf's supporters. Long before the race, Bhutto and Sharif had been forced into exile, weakening the ability of their parties to function.
As the race approached, Musharraf took over much of Sharif's party, the Pakistan Muslim League. He also passed a requirement that all candidates have a university degree, a measure that knocked some of Bhutto's and Sharif's strongest candidates off the ballot.
Ikram Sehgal, a defense analyst and retired army pilot who runs a security company, said government and intelligence officials also engaged in "post-poll rigging," pressing successful candidates from other parties to defect.
"They would say: 'You have not paid your taxes, here are the bills. These are the corruption cases against you,' " he said.
This year, the country's election commission, judiciary and local governments are all run by officials loyal to Musharraf. Analysts say the president has used the state of emergency to create an electoral playing field that favors his candidates, constraining media coverage, public rallies and the length of the campaign.
The dismissal and continued detention of Supreme Court and High Court judges "sent a very strong signal" that election results could not be appealed, according an election observer who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Instead of the standard 60-day campaign, candidates will have only three weeks after emergency rule, which is expected to end this weekend. Restrictions will remain against rallies and processions, which are only permitted in proscribed places.
And Musharraf has muzzled the country's news media, barring live coverage of election rallies and popular political talk shows. Under a new ordinance unilaterally enacted by Musharraf under emergency rule, television journalists face up to three years in jail for broadcasting "anything which defames or brings into ridicule the head of state."
In a letter to stations on Monday, government officials accused them of airing live telephone calls from the public that contained "baseless propaganda against Pakistan and incite people to violence." If the practice continued, they said, station owners and journalists could be jailed.
Fears also exist that government resources are being used in favor of election candidates. The nazim, or district mayor, who controls the local government officials running polling stations, can oversee rigging, Sehgal said. Opposition parties have demanded they be replaced by neutral officials during the election campaign.
Sehgal also said law enforcement agencies could shutter polling stations where opposition candidates were expected to do well on the pretext that there were disturbances. "The police find out where they could lose a polling station and they close it early," he said. "And they put the votes of their party in the box."
And after ballots are cast, there are concerns about how the vote will be tallied, according to the election observer. Political party observers may be barred from election centers where results from across the constituency will be totaled. "It's a huge deficiency," he said.
On Wednesday, Aitzaz Ahsan, a top lawyer who has been under house arrest during the state of emergency was imposed, announced that he was pulling out of the election, in deference to the lawyers who have sought a boycott of elections until the former Supreme Court is restored.
He and other lawyers predict the vote will be rigged. Sehgal estimates that Pervez Elahi, the former chief minister of Punjab Province and the leading candidate from Musharraf's party, can secure 100 seats in Punjab by virtue of his control of government machinery there.
Without rigging, he would only get 45 to 50 seats, he said. Gilani said his polling has shown 20 percent support for Musharraf's party after the emergency.
Filed under
Carlotta Gall,
David Rohde,
elections,
lawyers,
Pakistan,
Pervez Musharraf
by Winter Patriot
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Pakistan Link : APDM meeting continues to decide on boycotting elections
Monday, December 10, 2007
APDM meeting continues to decide on boycotting elections
December 9, 2007
LAHORE: The meeting of the All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) continues in Lahore Sunday under the chairmanship of Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif and is expected to make a decision on whether to boycott January 8 polls, party officials said.
Present in the meeting are Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Imran Khan, Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, Mian Shahbaz Sharif, Raja Zafarul Haq, Dr. Qadir Magsi, Ehsan Wayne, Mehmud Achakzai, Prof. Sajid Mir, Abid Hasan Manto and others.
Talking with media before the meeting, Qazi Hussain Ahmed said that the restoration of the judges is our fundamental demand and we will not make any compromise on it.
Imran Khan said that he would full pressure on the APDM leadership for bocotting the elections.
APDM component parties say that free and fair elections were not possible under the hand-picked judiciary and emergency rule imposed by President Pervez Musharraf on November 3.
The attorney general has said that emergency rule would be lifted on December 15.
But opposition parties accuse the election commission of being biased and say that it could not hold free and transparent polls.
Courtesy TheNews
December 9, 2007
LAHORE: The meeting of the All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) continues in Lahore Sunday under the chairmanship of Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif and is expected to make a decision on whether to boycott January 8 polls, party officials said.
Present in the meeting are Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Imran Khan, Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, Mian Shahbaz Sharif, Raja Zafarul Haq, Dr. Qadir Magsi, Ehsan Wayne, Mehmud Achakzai, Prof. Sajid Mir, Abid Hasan Manto and others.
Talking with media before the meeting, Qazi Hussain Ahmed said that the restoration of the judges is our fundamental demand and we will not make any compromise on it.
Imran Khan said that he would full pressure on the APDM leadership for bocotting the elections.
APDM component parties say that free and fair elections were not possible under the hand-picked judiciary and emergency rule imposed by President Pervez Musharraf on November 3.
The attorney general has said that emergency rule would be lifted on December 15.
But opposition parties accuse the election commission of being biased and say that it could not hold free and transparent polls.
Courtesy TheNews
Filed under
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Imran Khan,
Pakistan
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on Monday, December 10, 2007
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Reuters : Bhutto betrays Pakistan by running in poll - Imran Khan
Saturday, December 01, 2007
Bhutto betrays Pakistan by running in poll - Imran Khan
By Simon Gardner | December 1, 2007
LAHORE (Reuters) - Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto is betraying Pakistan by not joining an election boycott that cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan said on Saturday was key to ousting President Pervez Musharraf.
Bhutto says she is still open to the possibility of joining an array of opposition parties shunning January's general election to protest Musharraf's emergency rule and purging of the Supreme Court to safeguard his presidency.
But she has also kicked into campaign mode, unveiling a manifesto on Friday that woos the poor with promises of jobs, housing and healthcare, and analysts expect her to run.
"It is a complete case of betrayal," Khan told Reuters in an interview after addressing chanting lawyers in the eastern city of Lahore furious at the removal of the Supreme Court bench.
"Every day she says there is pre-poll rigging, every day she says there can't be free and fair elections. She says she doesn't trust the caretakers, she says the emergency is illegal...And yet she is participating and legitimising the whole process."
Opponents of Musharraf say they can discredit the vote if they unite in a wholesale boycott but distrust prevents them cooperating. Some calculate they might exert more pressure on Musharraf by besting his political allies in parliament.
Khan's own party Tehrik-e-Insaaf (Movement for Justice), is small, but he has joined opposition leaders, including two-time former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, in pushing for a boycott.
His party has not registered to run in the election while Sharif's and Bhutto's have.
"We want the whole (election) process to be discredited," Khan added. "To participate...is just playing on his pitch to save him. We are just giving him a lifeline."
Khan led Pakistan to victory in the 1992 Cricket World Cup and founded his own party with Islamic overtones a decade ago. He said the boycott would isolate Musharraf and edge him from power.
"If all the opposition got together today, the elections would be discredited, then he's gone, because he's no longer head of the army. He's gone! So then we have free and fair elections and hope for the future."
Khan was among thousands of opponents and lawyers Musharraf rounded up and detained after he imposed emergency rule on Nov.3. He escaped initial house arrest and was then caught after a failed bid to start a student uprising.
He was charged under anti-terror laws, but laughs it off.
"There's a law of the jungle here!" he said.
Khan says President George W. Bush's backing for Musharraf, regarded as a valued U.S. ally in the fight against al Qaeda, is compounding Pakistan's problems.
"If they do not ask for the reinstatement of the judges, they are playing Musharraf's game. Basically the impression is George Bush's administration does not want an independent judiciary, because then they won't be able to control the government like a puppet supposedly to fight their war on terror."
"This movement eventually will turn against the U.S. too, like the Iranian revolution."
© Reuters 2007 All rights reserved
By Simon Gardner | December 1, 2007
LAHORE (Reuters) - Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto is betraying Pakistan by not joining an election boycott that cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan said on Saturday was key to ousting President Pervez Musharraf.
Bhutto says she is still open to the possibility of joining an array of opposition parties shunning January's general election to protest Musharraf's emergency rule and purging of the Supreme Court to safeguard his presidency.
But she has also kicked into campaign mode, unveiling a manifesto on Friday that woos the poor with promises of jobs, housing and healthcare, and analysts expect her to run.
"It is a complete case of betrayal," Khan told Reuters in an interview after addressing chanting lawyers in the eastern city of Lahore furious at the removal of the Supreme Court bench.
"Every day she says there is pre-poll rigging, every day she says there can't be free and fair elections. She says she doesn't trust the caretakers, she says the emergency is illegal...And yet she is participating and legitimising the whole process."
Opponents of Musharraf say they can discredit the vote if they unite in a wholesale boycott but distrust prevents them cooperating. Some calculate they might exert more pressure on Musharraf by besting his political allies in parliament.
Khan's own party Tehrik-e-Insaaf (Movement for Justice), is small, but he has joined opposition leaders, including two-time former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, in pushing for a boycott.
His party has not registered to run in the election while Sharif's and Bhutto's have.
"We want the whole (election) process to be discredited," Khan added. "To participate...is just playing on his pitch to save him. We are just giving him a lifeline."
Khan led Pakistan to victory in the 1992 Cricket World Cup and founded his own party with Islamic overtones a decade ago. He said the boycott would isolate Musharraf and edge him from power.
"If all the opposition got together today, the elections would be discredited, then he's gone, because he's no longer head of the army. He's gone! So then we have free and fair elections and hope for the future."
Khan was among thousands of opponents and lawyers Musharraf rounded up and detained after he imposed emergency rule on Nov.3. He escaped initial house arrest and was then caught after a failed bid to start a student uprising.
He was charged under anti-terror laws, but laughs it off.
"There's a law of the jungle here!" he said.
Khan says President George W. Bush's backing for Musharraf, regarded as a valued U.S. ally in the fight against al Qaeda, is compounding Pakistan's problems.
"If they do not ask for the reinstatement of the judges, they are playing Musharraf's game. Basically the impression is George Bush's administration does not want an independent judiciary, because then they won't be able to control the government like a puppet supposedly to fight their war on terror."
"This movement eventually will turn against the U.S. too, like the Iranian revolution."
© Reuters 2007 All rights reserved
Filed under
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Imran Khan,
lawyers,
Pakistan
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Pakistan Times : Imran Khan reacts to Fazal-ur-Rehman’s Stance
Saturday, December 01, 2007
Imran Khan reacts to Fazal-ur-Rehman’s Stance
'Pakistan Times' Political Desk | December 1, 2007
ISLAMABAD: Chairman Tehrek-e-Insaf Imran Khan Friday strongly reacting to Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman’s statement wherein he has said that Nawaz Sharif has been taken hostage by letterhead parties said had the PTI adopted same approach as Maulana did, it would have got sufficient share in the government.
In a telephonic interview, he said that everybody knows the parties like JUIF are alive with the support of agencies and establishment.
The PTI Chairman also criticized Pakistan Peoples Party and Mutahidda Qoumi Movement saying they are furthering the western agenda in making way towards the power corridor.
To a question he said the manifesto of PTI stands for independent judiciary and it strongly demands for restoration of pre-November 3, position of the superior judiciary.
He said in the prevailing circumstances it would be a violation by its own constitution if the PTI opts to participate in the election.
To another question the PTI Chairman said that he had committed a mistake by supporting President Pervez Musharraf in the presidential referendum in past.
'Pakistan Times' Political Desk | December 1, 2007
ISLAMABAD: Chairman Tehrek-e-Insaf Imran Khan Friday strongly reacting to Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman’s statement wherein he has said that Nawaz Sharif has been taken hostage by letterhead parties said had the PTI adopted same approach as Maulana did, it would have got sufficient share in the government.
In a telephonic interview, he said that everybody knows the parties like JUIF are alive with the support of agencies and establishment.
The PTI Chairman also criticized Pakistan Peoples Party and Mutahidda Qoumi Movement saying they are furthering the western agenda in making way towards the power corridor.
To a question he said the manifesto of PTI stands for independent judiciary and it strongly demands for restoration of pre-November 3, position of the superior judiciary.
He said in the prevailing circumstances it would be a violation by its own constitution if the PTI opts to participate in the election.
To another question the PTI Chairman said that he had committed a mistake by supporting President Pervez Musharraf in the presidential referendum in past.
Filed under
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Imran Khan,
Maulana Fazl Ur Rehman,
Pakistan
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on Saturday, December 01, 2007
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The News : BB should lead opposition, says Imran
Saturday, December 01, 2007
BB should lead opposition, says Imran
By Zubair Azam | December 1, 2007
LAHORE -- Imran Khan has urged Benazir Bhutto and Maulana Fazlur Rehman to take active role in restoration of judiciary by endorsing APDM’s call for boycotting the 2008 general elections.
Addressing a student convention at Ichhra on Friday, the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) chief said the APDM’s polls boycott call has a single point agenda of restoring judiciary to pre-emergency status. He asked the prominent opposition leaders who have shown eagerness to contests the polls, PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto and JUI-F head Maulana Fazlur Rehman, to unite with APDM on this point. He also said Benazir Bhutto is scared of reopening of cases against her if she boycotted the polls.
“At this crucial juncture, she should lead the opposition,” Imran asserted. He vowed to back Benazir if the government reopened cases against her for seeking political vendetta. Around 1,000 students attended the convention. They belonged to Punjab University (PU), Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Beaconhouse National University (BNU), FAST-National University and others. Imran has called the moot for galvanising student support for the judiciary’s independence movement. Speaking at the occasion, he stressed upon the role of an independent judiciary for rule of law in the country. He paid glowing tributes to the apex court judges’ who had refused to take oath under the PCO. He said President Musharraf had targeted the sole instrument that provided justice to the people.
“Without an independent judiciary, this country has no future, the PTI chief claimed. He urged the students to support this movement, which aims restoring the judiciary. He stressed that the intention was not to launch a student wing of PTI but only to mobilise students and youth in the struggle. “I do not want students to politicise themselves,” he observed. Imran Khan added the youth had played a pivotal role in every revolution in the country.
For any movement to succeed, the participation of students is vital, he also said. Commenting on the Punjab University episode where he was thrashed by IJT members before handing him over to the police, Imran stated such incidents would not deter his resolve or confidence in the students. He lauded the surge of activism within students for restoration of democracy and judiciary.
The PU incident had not deterred him from the cause of saving judiciary, he claimed. He called the judges who took oath under PCO as PCO judges.
By Zubair Azam | December 1, 2007
LAHORE -- Imran Khan has urged Benazir Bhutto and Maulana Fazlur Rehman to take active role in restoration of judiciary by endorsing APDM’s call for boycotting the 2008 general elections.
Addressing a student convention at Ichhra on Friday, the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) chief said the APDM’s polls boycott call has a single point agenda of restoring judiciary to pre-emergency status. He asked the prominent opposition leaders who have shown eagerness to contests the polls, PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto and JUI-F head Maulana Fazlur Rehman, to unite with APDM on this point. He also said Benazir Bhutto is scared of reopening of cases against her if she boycotted the polls.
“At this crucial juncture, she should lead the opposition,” Imran asserted. He vowed to back Benazir if the government reopened cases against her for seeking political vendetta. Around 1,000 students attended the convention. They belonged to Punjab University (PU), Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Beaconhouse National University (BNU), FAST-National University and others. Imran has called the moot for galvanising student support for the judiciary’s independence movement. Speaking at the occasion, he stressed upon the role of an independent judiciary for rule of law in the country. He paid glowing tributes to the apex court judges’ who had refused to take oath under the PCO. He said President Musharraf had targeted the sole instrument that provided justice to the people.
“Without an independent judiciary, this country has no future, the PTI chief claimed. He urged the students to support this movement, which aims restoring the judiciary. He stressed that the intention was not to launch a student wing of PTI but only to mobilise students and youth in the struggle. “I do not want students to politicise themselves,” he observed. Imran Khan added the youth had played a pivotal role in every revolution in the country.
For any movement to succeed, the participation of students is vital, he also said. Commenting on the Punjab University episode where he was thrashed by IJT members before handing him over to the police, Imran stated such incidents would not deter his resolve or confidence in the students. He lauded the surge of activism within students for restoration of democracy and judiciary.
The PU incident had not deterred him from the cause of saving judiciary, he claimed. He called the judges who took oath under PCO as PCO judges.
Filed under
Benazir Bhutto,
elections,
Imran Khan,
Maulana Fazl Ur Rehman,
Pakistan
by Winter Patriot
on Saturday, December 01, 2007
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APP : Imran reacts to Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman’s statement
Saturday, December 01, 2007
Imran reacts to Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman’s statement
November 30, 2007
ISLAMABAD, Nov 30 (APP): Chairman Tehrek-e-Insaf Imran Khan Friday strongly reacting to Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman’s statement wherein he has said that Nawaz Sharif has been taken hostage by letterhead parties said had the PTI adopted same approach as Maulana did, it would have got sufficient share in the government.
In a telephonic interview to PTV he said that everybody knows the parties like JUIF are alive with the support of agencies and establishment.
The PTI Chairman also criticized Pakistan Peoples Party and Mutahidda Qoumi Movement saying they are furthering the western agenda in making way towards the power corridor.
To a question he said the manifesto of PTI stands for independent judiciary and it strongly demands for restoration of pre-November 3, position of the superior judiciary.
He said in the prevailing circumstances it would be a violation by its own constitution if the PTI opts to participate in the election.
To another question the PTI Chairman said that he had committed a mistake by supporting President Pervez Musharraf in the presidential referendum in past.
November 30, 2007
ISLAMABAD, Nov 30 (APP): Chairman Tehrek-e-Insaf Imran Khan Friday strongly reacting to Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman’s statement wherein he has said that Nawaz Sharif has been taken hostage by letterhead parties said had the PTI adopted same approach as Maulana did, it would have got sufficient share in the government.
In a telephonic interview to PTV he said that everybody knows the parties like JUIF are alive with the support of agencies and establishment.
The PTI Chairman also criticized Pakistan Peoples Party and Mutahidda Qoumi Movement saying they are furthering the western agenda in making way towards the power corridor.
To a question he said the manifesto of PTI stands for independent judiciary and it strongly demands for restoration of pre-November 3, position of the superior judiciary.
He said in the prevailing circumstances it would be a violation by its own constitution if the PTI opts to participate in the election.
To another question the PTI Chairman said that he had committed a mistake by supporting President Pervez Musharraf in the presidential referendum in past.
Filed under
elections,
Imran Khan,
Maulana Fazl Ur Rehman,
Pakistan
by Winter Patriot
on Saturday, December 01, 2007
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Dawn : PPP to take part in general elections: Benazir
Friday, November 30, 2007
PPP to take part in general elections: Benazir
November 30, 2007
RAWALPINDI, Nov.30 (APP): Benazir Bhutto said Friday that PPP would take part in the January elections adding that it was imperative for all the political parties to participate in the elections and foil any attempt at rigging.
Addressing party workers she said election boycott would be beneficial for the the ruling PML(Q).
Referring to situation in Swat and tribal areas, she said the problem could be resolved through political means.
November 30, 2007
RAWALPINDI, Nov.30 (APP): Benazir Bhutto said Friday that PPP would take part in the January elections adding that it was imperative for all the political parties to participate in the elections and foil any attempt at rigging.
Addressing party workers she said election boycott would be beneficial for the the ruling PML(Q).
Referring to situation in Swat and tribal areas, she said the problem could be resolved through political means.
Filed under
Benazir Bhutto,
elections,
Pakistan
by Winter Patriot
on Friday, November 30, 2007
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Frontier Post : Imran remarks on poll rigging
Friday, November 30, 2007
Imran remarks on poll rigging
November 30, 2007
MIANWALI (NNI): Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan has said the government completed preparations to succeed Pakistan Muslim League (Q) in the upcoming polls through rigging.
In his telephonic conversation with media on Thursday, Imran Khan termed the upcoming polls in present of martial law and restrictions on media as drama and made it clear that the opposition would not accept it in the present circumstance.
The PTI Chairman said it is better time to reject the holding of forthcoming elections in the supervision of military dictator to clarify it on the US and European Union that the political parties could not contest polls in the presence of emergency and dictator.
November 30, 2007
MIANWALI (NNI): Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan has said the government completed preparations to succeed Pakistan Muslim League (Q) in the upcoming polls through rigging.
In his telephonic conversation with media on Thursday, Imran Khan termed the upcoming polls in present of martial law and restrictions on media as drama and made it clear that the opposition would not accept it in the present circumstance.
The PTI Chairman said it is better time to reject the holding of forthcoming elections in the supervision of military dictator to clarify it on the US and European Union that the political parties could not contest polls in the presence of emergency and dictator.
Filed under
elections,
Imran Khan,
Pakistan
by Winter Patriot
on Friday, November 30, 2007
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The News : Taking the right line
Friday, November 30, 2007
Taking the right line
By Dr Masooda Bano | November 30, 2007
Finally, the General has shed his uniform but not his ambition to stay on in power. As General Musharraf takes the oath of the civil president, the problems with his presidency are all the more obvious. What legitimacy does a president have who has been elected by an outgoing parliament -- a parliament whose credibility remained contested till the end? The ball is now in the court of the political parties, do they validate this system, which has no legitimacy or do they continue the struggle for the restoration of the constitution and the re-instatement of the pre-emergency judges as a condition to join the elections. The choice should clearly be the latter. The signs from PPP are mixed. But, if Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan stick to this demand as they are doing right now, if nothing else they will fully expose the ideology bankruptcy of PPP's leadership.
How can Benazir or the top PPP's ranks not be clear that the reinstatement of the judges must be made the top priority in deciding on whether or not to participate in the elections? An independent judiciary is the key to genuine institutional reforms in Pakistan. The billions of dollars taken in development aid and loans in the past seven years for so called institutional reforms have delivered nothing. But, a home-grown lawyers movement, run not though paid development professionals but the personal sacrifices of the lawyers and the judges has provided Pakistan the historical opportunity for a genuine institutional reform: a leadership among judges has emerged at the Supreme as well as the High Court which has agreed to live up to certain principles rather act as a rubber stamp to the decisions of the executive and the army. If the Pakistanis fail to seize this historical opportunity for institutional reform after coming so close to it we are indeed a sad nation.
It is therefore heartening to see Nawaz Sharif living up to people's expectations. His clear position on the demand for reinstatement of pre-emergency judges is most promising. He should rest assured that he will become more prominent a leader if he sticks to this demand. It is interesting how so many of us who in the 1990s, were on the PPP's side and viewed Nawaz Sharif as a product of the military are now disgusted with the PPP's behaviour. There is clear consensus that while Nawaz Sharif over time groomed himself, Benazir on the other hand lost her democratic credentials. Even now to think that the struggle for reinstatement of judges is threatened because the PPP is not willing to prioritise it and boycott the elections is pathetic. The PPP should be the party out in the streets with this demand. Yet, the PPP is the party right now, which is the biggest hurdle in the way of this demand. What could be sadder?
Given that Benazir has been very open in her association with the US since this summer, it is difficult to know why exactly she is so reluctant to ask for reinstatement of the judges. Is it that like Musharraf she wants a tamed judiciary rather than an independent one if she was to be elected? Is it that the negotiators of her deals in the US are telling her that they want the pre-emergency judges kept out of the system so that they can keep pursuing any kind of illegal action in the name of war on terror in Pakistan, with no institution left where the aggrieved could ask for justice. After all, the missing peoples' cases prioritised by Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry have been put on the back burner under the new set up? Or is it that she worries about the fate of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), which closed the corruption cases against her, if judged by independent judges. Needless to say, whatever the cause, it is not impressive.
It is critical that General (r) Musharraf's civilian attire does not lead to a culmination of the lawyers' movement and weakening of public demand for re-instatement of the judges. It is a clear success of the lawyers' movement that weakened General Musharraf control to the point that eventually he had to concede to the demand of giving up his uniform. This should make bolder not weaken the struggle for independence of judiciary. People should rally behind the political figures like Imran Khan and Nawaz Sharif, which are very clear in their demand for reinstatement of judges. We all know that Imran Khan has shown the character to stand for his principles whether or not people come out to support the cause, so we can be sure he will be there to lead this demand in coming weeks. Nawaz Sharif has built much credibility too by staying steady in his critique of the military government and prioritising the demand for the reinstatement of judges, but given that his is a bigger party, with higher pressure to bear, it is important that people should express their support for this demand to keep him committed to it.
Meanwhile, in the US, concerns are being expressed about Nawaz Sharif not being a liberal like Benazir and for not giving US full assurance to fight its war on terror in Pakistan. Apparently for the US, liberalism in Pakistan means following the US dictates even if it means killing civilians through aerial bombings. It is high time that the US administration understands that the way to fight terrorism does not rest in the use of force. Pakistan is not a militant nation. The underlying causes of militancy in Pakistan can only be addressed through negotiations and establishment of a just society, and that is why the reinstatement of pre-emergency judges should be a priority. Much of the current resistance in Pakistan is of a reactionary nature. If democratic channels exist to channel this dissent, the militancy will come down.
The writer is undertaking post-doctoral research at Oxford University. Email: mb294@hotmail.com
By Dr Masooda Bano | November 30, 2007
Finally, the General has shed his uniform but not his ambition to stay on in power. As General Musharraf takes the oath of the civil president, the problems with his presidency are all the more obvious. What legitimacy does a president have who has been elected by an outgoing parliament -- a parliament whose credibility remained contested till the end? The ball is now in the court of the political parties, do they validate this system, which has no legitimacy or do they continue the struggle for the restoration of the constitution and the re-instatement of the pre-emergency judges as a condition to join the elections. The choice should clearly be the latter. The signs from PPP are mixed. But, if Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan stick to this demand as they are doing right now, if nothing else they will fully expose the ideology bankruptcy of PPP's leadership.
How can Benazir or the top PPP's ranks not be clear that the reinstatement of the judges must be made the top priority in deciding on whether or not to participate in the elections? An independent judiciary is the key to genuine institutional reforms in Pakistan. The billions of dollars taken in development aid and loans in the past seven years for so called institutional reforms have delivered nothing. But, a home-grown lawyers movement, run not though paid development professionals but the personal sacrifices of the lawyers and the judges has provided Pakistan the historical opportunity for a genuine institutional reform: a leadership among judges has emerged at the Supreme as well as the High Court which has agreed to live up to certain principles rather act as a rubber stamp to the decisions of the executive and the army. If the Pakistanis fail to seize this historical opportunity for institutional reform after coming so close to it we are indeed a sad nation.
It is therefore heartening to see Nawaz Sharif living up to people's expectations. His clear position on the demand for reinstatement of pre-emergency judges is most promising. He should rest assured that he will become more prominent a leader if he sticks to this demand. It is interesting how so many of us who in the 1990s, were on the PPP's side and viewed Nawaz Sharif as a product of the military are now disgusted with the PPP's behaviour. There is clear consensus that while Nawaz Sharif over time groomed himself, Benazir on the other hand lost her democratic credentials. Even now to think that the struggle for reinstatement of judges is threatened because the PPP is not willing to prioritise it and boycott the elections is pathetic. The PPP should be the party out in the streets with this demand. Yet, the PPP is the party right now, which is the biggest hurdle in the way of this demand. What could be sadder?
Given that Benazir has been very open in her association with the US since this summer, it is difficult to know why exactly she is so reluctant to ask for reinstatement of the judges. Is it that like Musharraf she wants a tamed judiciary rather than an independent one if she was to be elected? Is it that the negotiators of her deals in the US are telling her that they want the pre-emergency judges kept out of the system so that they can keep pursuing any kind of illegal action in the name of war on terror in Pakistan, with no institution left where the aggrieved could ask for justice. After all, the missing peoples' cases prioritised by Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry have been put on the back burner under the new set up? Or is it that she worries about the fate of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), which closed the corruption cases against her, if judged by independent judges. Needless to say, whatever the cause, it is not impressive.
It is critical that General (r) Musharraf's civilian attire does not lead to a culmination of the lawyers' movement and weakening of public demand for re-instatement of the judges. It is a clear success of the lawyers' movement that weakened General Musharraf control to the point that eventually he had to concede to the demand of giving up his uniform. This should make bolder not weaken the struggle for independence of judiciary. People should rally behind the political figures like Imran Khan and Nawaz Sharif, which are very clear in their demand for reinstatement of judges. We all know that Imran Khan has shown the character to stand for his principles whether or not people come out to support the cause, so we can be sure he will be there to lead this demand in coming weeks. Nawaz Sharif has built much credibility too by staying steady in his critique of the military government and prioritising the demand for the reinstatement of judges, but given that his is a bigger party, with higher pressure to bear, it is important that people should express their support for this demand to keep him committed to it.
Meanwhile, in the US, concerns are being expressed about Nawaz Sharif not being a liberal like Benazir and for not giving US full assurance to fight its war on terror in Pakistan. Apparently for the US, liberalism in Pakistan means following the US dictates even if it means killing civilians through aerial bombings. It is high time that the US administration understands that the way to fight terrorism does not rest in the use of force. Pakistan is not a militant nation. The underlying causes of militancy in Pakistan can only be addressed through negotiations and establishment of a just society, and that is why the reinstatement of pre-emergency judges should be a priority. Much of the current resistance in Pakistan is of a reactionary nature. If democratic channels exist to channel this dissent, the militancy will come down.
The writer is undertaking post-doctoral research at Oxford University. Email: mb294@hotmail.com
Filed under
Benazir Bhutto,
elections,
emergency,
Imran Khan,
lawyers,
Nawaz Sharif,
Pakistan
by Winter Patriot
on Friday, November 30, 2007
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