Bhutto Call for Protest Sets Up Confrontation

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 7 — The police clashed violently with supporters of the opposition leader Benazir Bhutto today after she announced that her party would carry out a mass demonstration on Friday and a protest march next week if the president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, refuses to end emergency rule. Full Story

Besieged Musharraf plays for time

KARACHI - President General Pervez Musharraf put on a confident face on Monday during a televised briefing for foreign diplomats on his declaration of emergency rule on Saturday, saying that elections will be held "as close as possible to the schedule" of January 15, and that "there will be harmony. Confidence will come back into government."

Under the surface, though, the president, who had suspended the constitution for the second time (the first was in 1999 when he took power in a bloodless coup), barred the Supreme Court from making any ruling against his administration, and curbed the media, is a very worried man.
Extensive protests in many parts of the country, especially in Lahore, where they were ruthlessly dealt with, took Musharraf and his inner circle by surprise, Asia Times Online contacts confirm.

On Monday, Musharraf presided over a meeting that included Vice Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kiani, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and the director general of Military Intelligence ... Full Story

Bhutto urges supporters to back anti-Musharraf protests

Benazir Bhutto flew to the Pakistani capital Islamabad today and vowed to keep pressure on General Pervez Musharraf after another day of protests by lawyers over the imposition of emergency rule.

At the same time Imran Khan, the former Pakistan cricket captain and leader of an opposition party, was reported to have fled house arrest and gone into hiding.

His ex-wife Jemima Khan released a statement in which he said police ransacked his house and roughed up his family. He escaped before they returned to take him to jail, the statement said.

Article continues

---

---

Until now, activists from Ms Bhutto's Pakistan People's party have been noticeably absent from the demonstrations. It was widely thought that Ms Bhutto was anxious not to jeopardise a suspected future power sharing agreement with Gen Musharraf. Full Story

The thorn in Musharraf's side

Nov 6, 2007 - There is a reason why Pakistan's chief justice is under house arrest: he represents the biggest challenge to General Musharraf's authority, writes Mark Tran (Guardian UK)

If there is one man in Pakistan who may yet prove to be President General Pervez Musharraf's nemesis, it is chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, virtually under house arrest following emergency rule.

It was Gen Musharraf's botched decision to try to get Mr Chaudhry sacked as head of the supreme court back in March that marked the start of the general's problems.

Editorialists and commentators condemned Gen Musharraf's clumsy attempt to remove someone who was willing to stand up the government, and opposition political parties also rallied to the country's top judge.

Article continues

---

---

In July, Gen Musharraf was forced to eat humble pie when the supreme court quashed misconduct charges against Mr Chaudhry and ordered him reinstated. Gen Musharraf has said that he was forced to declare a state of emergency and suspend the constitution because of an upsurge of terrorist violence, including suicide bombings.

But the more likely reason was a forthcoming ruling from the supreme court that Gen Musharraf's landslide victory in October was invalid because he had not stepped down as head of the army. In the crackdown, lawyers and opposition politicians seemed the particular target of security forces and Mr Chaudhry is now confined to his house.

The judge however remains defiant and true to form - today he urged lawyers to carry on their protesting. "Go to every corner of Pakistan and give the message that this is the time to sacrifice," the judge told lawyers by mobile phone. "Don't be afraid. God will help us and the day will come when you'll see the constitution supreme and no dictatorship for a long time."

This is par for the course for Judge Chaudhry who has challenged the government on several occasions. Just before the declaration of emergency rule, for example, the court rejected the deportation of the former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, who was expelled when he tried to return in September.

The court even admonished the chairman of Pakistan International Airlines for trying to conceal information about the incident and there was the possibility of the prime minister facing contempt charges over the Sharif affair - which would have been a first in Pakistan.

Commentators say Judge Chaudhry had become a thorn, if not an outright threat, to the government because he had begun to take the constitutional guarantee of judicial independence too seriously and was poking his nose into delicate government business.

The judge caused intense annoyance and embarrassment to the government when he overturned the much-publicised privatisation of a steel mill. The prime minister, Shaukat Aziz, emerged damaged from the episode, accused of approving the under-priced sale of a major national asset.

The chief justice also took up cases of "forced disappearances" - people believed to have been picked up by the country's powerful intelligence agencies without due process of law.

The case that drew most concern from Gen Musharraf was a ruling on whether he could simultaneously hold the posts of president and army chief and whether the present parliament can re-elect the general as president - as it did in October.

But justice Chaudhry has also had his critics. His gruff style offended many lawyers and government officials. It was an open letter addressed to the chief justice by Naeem Bokhari, a flamboyant lawyer and television talk show host, criticising him for his conduct and alleged nepotism that sparked efforts to get the judge sacked in March.

However, all that did was to turn Judge Chaudhry into an unlikely pro-democracy hero, with thousands taking to the streets to demonstrate against Gen Musharraf. The chief justice could emerge as a focal figure yet again now that the general has thumbed his nose at his western backers and declared emergency rule.

Protestors roughed up...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 6 — In a telephone address to lawyers in Pakistan’s capital, the ousted chief justice of the Supreme Court urged them today to continue to defy the state of emergency imposed by the president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

“The lawyers should convey my message to the people to rise up and restore the Constitution,” the chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, told dozens of lawyers on speakerphone at a meeting of the Islamabad Bar Association before his cellphone line was cut. “I am under arrest now, but soon I will also join you in your struggle.”

Today, the second day of protests, the police arrested 50 lawyers in the eastern city of Lahore and clashes broke out between hundreds of lawyers and Pakistani police officers in Multan, about 200 miles to the southwest. On Monday, in Lahore and other cities, thousands of lawyers protested, with many beaten by baton-wielding police officers and then thrown into police wagons. By the end of that day, about 2,000 people had been rounded up by the authorities, among them 500 to 700 lawyers, according to lawyers and political officials.

It was unclear how Chief Justice Chaudhry, who was fired on Saturday and is under house arrest, was able to gain access to a cellphone. He and other lawyers said they hoped to re-create the protest campaign they carried out this spring when the lawyers mounted big rallies in major cities after General Musharraf had removed Chief Justice Chaudhry from the Supreme Court bench. General Musharraf’s popularity plummeted during the protests, and Mr. Chaudhry was reinstated after four months, invigorating the Supreme Court and the general’s opponents. Full Story