ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Major opposition parties joined forces yesterday to warn President Pervez Musharraf he must end emergency rule and release former Supreme Court judges if he wants to avoid a threatened boycott of next month’s elections.
In northwestern Peshawar, meanwhile, a female suicide bomber apparently trying to attack a military checkpoint blew herself up near a Christian missionary school, officials said.
The attack was believed to be Pakistan’s first case of a suicide attack by a woman. There were no other casualties and the woman’s motives were not known.The list of opposition demands, drawn up as conditions for the parties’ participation in parliamentary elections, raises the stakes for Musharraf’s government. Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif likened the joint action to a war to “save Pakistan from further destruction.” Sharif spent the day campaigning, although his candidacy for the Jan. 8 balloting was struck down Monday because he was convicted on a charge stemming from the 1999 military coup in which Musharraf overthrew his government.
“My resolve to save Pakistan is still high and, God willing, we will win this war against Musharraf,” Sharif said as he met with supporters in the mountainous north. Representatives of his faction and those of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s party - normally political foes but united by the common goal of fighting Musharraf - set up a joint committee to draw up the demands and set a deadline for compliance.
“We all were in agreement that under the prevailing, fraudulent system, the forthcoming elections would be massively rigged unless the opposition takes concrete steps,” said Ahsan Iqbal, one of Sharif’s nominees on the committee. This week’s talks between Sharif and Bhutto are their first since both returned from exile.
Since he declared emergency rule Nov. 3, Musharraf has filled the Supreme Court with loyalists who quickly approved his continued rule and jailed hundreds of human rights workers, civic activists and lawyers. Most have been released and Musharraf has promised to lift the emergency Dec. 16, about three weeks before elections. But repression continues. Police clashed briefly yesterday with 250 people taking part in a protest march in the capital, Islamabad. There were no immediate reports of injuries or arrests.
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Tags: Benazir Bhutto, Elections, nawaz sharif, opposition
5 responses so far ↓
1 GeoaurGeenaydo // Dec 5, 2007 at 4:34 pm
Thinking long term I have bigger worries that the same politicans that are protesting against Musharraf have done similar deeds when they were in power …. what would happen if they come to power again?
We need strong institutions that can keep a check and balance on everyone.
Geo Everyone
2 Javaid Aziz // Dec 5, 2007 at 7:21 pm
Journalists from international newspapers have either ignored or have no idea that even if Musharraf lifts Emergency we will still have no “writ of habeas corpus” because of the new Army Act. They can pick anyone and hold for ever, without producing before a civilian Judge. And to criticise this is a crime also. (The reason all Newspapers are mum). Musharraf did not want to submit to law as you see in the decisions below. So he has made himself a King. I was able to explain this to journalist (Dutch magazine, Vrij Nederland) and in a long article she did put: ” Ironically, Imran Khan last week became one of the very few Pakistanis to be charged with terrorism in “the war on terror.” His crime was to lead a student rally at Punjab University. The sentence could be death. He is in prison and his family says he has been on a hunger strike since Sunday.”
So, please, explain the tricks. Because, somehow the Western Journalists do not see the Musharraf doings as criminal acts. A man submits to a court and if the decision is adverse then he terrorizes the whole country. Keep on explaining to them.
Without a “writ of habeas corpus” we are finished.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22012138/
They are arguing for the right to do what any prisoner in a federal penitentiary can do: use the writ of habeas corpus to try to win their freedom.
Enshrined in the Constitution, the writ of habeas corpus allows a prisoner to go before a judge to force the government to explain why they’re being held.
http://www.app.com.pk/en/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=20627&Itemid=2 ordinance
http://www.naitazi.com/2007/11/20/deposed-judges-release-ruling-against-musharraf/ 58 page decision
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2007_11_20_indexarch.php#5735988438203932480 58 page decision
http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=10456 18 page decision Falak Sher
3 Javaid Aziz // Dec 5, 2007 at 7:25 pm
King Musharraf and the Writ of Habeas Corpus
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7127194.stm
4 Javaid Aziz // Dec 6, 2007 at 1:31 am
Read this on BBC Urdu.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/story/2007/12/071205_bhagwan_int_rza.shtml
Very significant.
Musharraf has put himself in legal blind alley!
I have learnt that Police will be removed on Fiday night from Aitzaz Ahsan’ house.
5 Saqib Majeed // Dec 6, 2007 at 10:29 am
Why dont Benazir and Nawaz form an alliance to contest election and make a coaliation government. In this way they may get two thierd majority to bring about constitutional changes peacefully and hence the nation may be united as there will be consensus in making policies and their continuation if both the leaders are so sincere with the country and nation. I think this is the high time to think on these lines. Take the example of Nelson Mendella who strived so long for the dignity of his people with a non violent movement for almost 3~4 decades and finally he succeded and after this huge success he made way for his successors to govern the country because to be the president of the country was not his core objective. His objective was done after his nation got freedom and that was it.can any one or a group of existing pakistani leaders have this ethical value of a greed free stance for the nation? Only then the nation can have a hope to see a bright future of our next generations.
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