Guantánamo guards suffer psychological trauma

James Randerso | Washington DC | Monday February 25 2008

The guards at the Guantánamo Bay prison camp are the "overlooked victims" of America's controversial detention facility in Cuba, according to a psychiatrist who has treated some of them.

In some cases, a tour of duty at the camp has made guards suicidal and prompted a variety of psychiatric symptoms, from depression and insomnia to flashbacks. The guards' testimony also provides a harrowing insight into the treatment of prisoners.

Professor John Smith, a retired US Air Force captain, treated a patient who was a guard at the camp. "I think the guards of Guantánamo are an overlooked group of victims," Smith told the American Academy of Forensic Sciences annual meeting in Washington DC on Saturday. "They do not complain a lot. You do not hear about them."

The patient ('Mr H') is a national guardsman in his early 40s who was sent to Guantánamo in the first months of its operation, when prisoners captured in Afghanistan were beginning to flood into the camp. Mr H reported that he found conditions at the camp extremely disturbing. For example, in the first month two detainees and two prison guards committed suicide.

Painful positions

The taunts of prisoners and the things his superiors required him to do to them had a severe psychological impact on Mr H. "He was called upon to bring detainees, enemy combatants, to certain places and to see that they were handcuffed in particularly painful and difficult positions, usually naked, in anticipation of their interrogation," said ...

Full story @ http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/feb/25/guantanamo.guards

Pakistan: Musharraf Dismisses Exit Talk

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS | February 25, 2008

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- President Pervez Musharraf's spokesman on Monday dismissed a suggestion from three U.S. senators that the embattled leader make a ''graceful exit'' from power his opponents' victory in Pakistan's elections.

Musharraf was elected to a new five-year presidential term last year by Pakistani lawmakers, ''not by any senator from the United States,'' his spokesman Rashid Qureshi told Dawn News television.

''So I don't think he needs to respond to anything that is said by these people,'' he said.

The three U.S. senators met Musharraf shortly after last week's parliamentary vote in which his political allies were routed. Some Pakistani political leaders have also called for him to resign.

Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Sunday that he would advise Musharraf to seek a dignified way to leave office.

''I firmly believe if (political parties) do not focus on old grudges -- and there's plenty in Pakistan -- and give him a graceful way to move,'' then it could happen, Biden, a Democrat, said on ABC television.

Republican Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Chuck Hagel also endorsed a negotiated retreat rather than a push from power for Musharraf.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Pakistan-Musharraf.html

Maj-Gen Ehtesham Zamir's disclosure reaffirms that Musharraf's elections as President were illegal...

The man, who rigged 2002 polls, spills the beans

By Umar Cheema

ISLAMABAD: The main wheeler and dealer of the ISI during the 2002 elections, the then Maj-Gen Ehtesham Zamir, now retired, has come out of the closet and admitted his guilt of manipulating the 2002 elections, and has directly blamed Gen Musharraf for ordering so.

Talking to The News, the head of the ISI’s political cell in 2002, admitted manipulating the last elections at the behest of President Musharraf and termed the defeat of the King’s party, the PML-Q, this time “a reaction of the unnatural dispensation (installed in 2002).”

Zamir said the ISI together with the NAB was instrumental in pressing the lawmakers to join the pro-Musharraf camp to form the government to support his stay in power.

Looking down back into the memory lane and recalling his blunders which, he admitted, had pushed the country back instead of taking it forward, Zamir feels ashamed of his role and conduct.

Massively embarrassed because he was the one who negotiated, coerced and did all the dirty work, the retired Maj-Gen said he was not in a position to become a preacher now when his own past was tainted.

He said the country would not have faced such regression had the political management was not carried out by the ISI in 2002. But he also put some responsibility of the political disaster on the PML-Q as well.

The former No: 2 of the ISI called for the closure of political cell in the agency, confessing that it was part of the problem due to its involvement in forging unnatural alliances, contrary to public wishes.

Zamir’s blaming Musharraf for creating this unnatural alliance rings true as another former top associate of Musharraf, Lt-Gen (retd) Jamshed Gulzar Kiyani has already disclosed that majority of the corps commanders, in several meetings, had opposed Musharraf’s decision of patronising the leadership of the King’s party.

“We had urged Musharraf many times during the corps commanders meeting that the PML-Q leadership was the most condemned and castigated personalities. They are the worst politicians who remained involved in co-operative scandals and writing off loans. But Musharraf never heard our advice,” Kiyani said while recalling discussions in their high profile meetings.

He said one of their colleagues, who was an accountability chief at that time, had sought permission many times for proceeding against the King’s party top leaders but was always denied.

Kiyani asked Musharraf to quit, the sooner the better, as otherwise the country would be in a serious trouble.

Ma-Gen (retd) Ehtesham Zamir termed the 2008 elections ‘fairer than 2002’. He said the reason behind their fairness is that there was relatively less interference of intelligence agencies this time as compared to the last time. But he stopped short of saying that there was zero interference in the 2008 polls.

“You are quite right,” he said when asked to confirm about heavy penetration of ISI into political affairs during the 2002 elections. But he said he did not do it on his own but on the directives issued by the government.

Asked who directed him from the government side and if there was somebody else, not President Musharraf, he said: “Obviously on the directives of President Musharraf.”

Asked if he then never felt that he was committing a crime by manipulating political business at the cost of public wishes, he said: “Who should I have told except myself. Could I have asked Musharraf about this? I was a serving officer and I did what I was told to do. I never felt this need during the service to question anyone senior to me,” he said and added that he could not defend his acts now.

“It was for this reason that I have never tried to preach others what I did not practice. But I am of the view that the ISI’s political cell should be closed for good by revoking executive orders issued in 1975,” he said.

Responding to a question regarding corruption cases that were used as pressure tactics on lawmakers, he said: “Yes! This tool was used, not only by the ISI. The NAB was also involved in this exercise.”

Former corps commander of Rawalpindi, Lt-Gen (retd) Jamshed Gulzar Kiyani said majority of corps commanders had continued opposing Musharraf’s alliance with top leadership of the PML-Q.

“Not just in one meeting, we opposed his alignment with these corrupt politicians in many meetings but who cared. Now Musharraf has been disgraced everywhere, thanks to his political cronies.”

Source : http://thenews.jang.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=13159

Pervez Musharraf 'will exit in days, not months'

By Massoud Ansari in Islamabad | Last Updated: 2:05am GMT 24/02/2008

Pervez Musharraf is considering stepping down as president of Pakistan rather than waiting to be forced out by his victorious opponents, aides have told The Sunday Telegraph.

One close confidante said that the president believed he had run out of options after three of the main parties who triumphed in last week's poll announced they would form a coalition government together, and also pledged to reinstate the country's chief justice and 60 other judges sacked by Mr Musharraf in November.

"He has already started discussing the exit strategy for himself," a close friend said. "I think it is now just a matter of days and not months because he would like to make a graceful exit on a high."

According to senior aides, Mr Musharraf wants to avoid a power struggle with the newly elected parliament, in which his opponents will be close to the two-thirds majority needed to impeach him and remove him from office.

"He may have made many mistakes, but he genuinely tried to build the country and he doesn't want to destroy it just for the sake of his personal office," said an official close to ...

Full post @ http://www.telegraph.co.uk

The dependable hand in "War on Terror" will soon be sinking...

Nothing can be achieved by force...

What do Shah Iran, Husni Mubarak, Sadaam Hussein, Hamid Karzai and Musharraf have in common?

Used terror to rule people.

Brilliantly engineered results...

Limited options for US in Pakistan

By M K Bhadrakumar

The George W Bush administration lost no time reiterating its support of President Pervez Musharraf following the February 18 parliamentary elections. There is bipartisan consensus in Washington that in the given circumstances, the United States has very little leeway other than depending on Musharraf and the Pakistani military.

The leading Republican contender in the US presidential race, Senator John McCain, bluntly rejected the calls for Musharraf's resignation, even calling the Pakistani leader "a legitimately elected president". Top Democrats - Senator Joseph Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Senator John Kerry - as well as the influential Republican figure Senator "Chuck" Hagel, who were in Pakistan as election "observers", also implicitly endorsed Washington's reiteration of Musharraf being a key US ally.

Indeed, there seems to be a bipartisan understanding in Washington that the US finds itself on slippery turf in Pakistan. Any perspective on the US predicament in Pakistan solely in terms of Washington's commitment to the forces of democracy and change will be too simplistic. There are several factors at work that seriously limit the US options in Pakistan.

Fractured election verdict
First, a close assessment of the election results in Pakistan will show that what is available from the February 18 polls is a fractured verdict by the Pakistani ...

Full story @ http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/JB23Df03.html

Pakistan Shift Could Curtail Drone Strikes

By ERIC SCHMITT and DAVID E. SANGER

WASHINGTON — American officials reached a quiet understanding with Pakistan’s leader last month to intensify secret strikes against suspected terrorists by pilotless aircraft launched in Pakistan, senior officials in both governments say. But the prospect of changes in Pakistan’s government has the Bush administration worried that the new operations could be curtailed.

Among other things, the new arrangements allowed an increase in the number and scope of patrols and strikes by armed Predator surveillance aircraft launched from a secret base in Pakistan — a far more aggressive strategy to attack Al Qaeda and the Taliban than had existed before.

But since opposition parties emerged victorious from the parliamentary election early this week, American officials are worried that the new, more permissive arrangement could be choked off in its infancy.

In the weeks before Monday’s election, a series of meetings among President Bush’s national security advisers resulted in a significant relaxation of the rules under which American forces could aim attacks at suspected Qaeda and Taliban fighters in the tribal areas near Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan.

Full post @ http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/22/

Clouds gather as 'sulky' Musharraf retreats to bunker

Despite US support, president is isolated in battle for power

Declan Walsh in Islamabad | The Guardian, | Saturday February 23 2008

Pervez Musharraf's allies received a drubbing in Monday's elections. Now he faces the prospect of being impeached as president if his rivals can cobble together a two-thirds majority in parliament Photograph: Aamir Qureshi/AFP

In some ways life has changed little for Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, since Monday's election. The retired general still trots out for afternoon tennis, aides say, and enjoys a game of bridge a few times a week. In the evenings he pulls on a cigar and, although he can't admit it, nurses a glass of whisky.

Visitors still call to see him at Army House, the marble-floored Rawalpindi residence of Pakistan's military chiefs, even though he retired three months ago. "It has been renamed Presidential Lodge," said spokesman Rashid Qureshi. "The normal routine is functioning."

But outside clouds are gathering. The spectacular rout of his Pakistan Muslim League (Q) party at the polls has shorn the retired commando of his political base, leaving him isolated and exposed.

"He's been sulking," said a senior party official. "He's retreated into a mental bunker, which is not healthy. He thinks everyone is out to get him and only listens to a small circle. It's a dangerous mindset to be in at this point in time. He could decide to hit back."

Musharraf's bad mood stems from the prospect of Nawaz Sharif, the rotund prime minister from Punjab he ousted in a 1999 coup and banished to Saudi Arabia...

Full post @ http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/23/pakistan

U.S. Payments To Pakistan Face New Scrutiny

Little Accounting for Costs To Support Ally's Troops

By Robin Wright | Thursday, February 21, 2008; | Washington Post Staff Writer

Once a month, Pakistan's Defense Ministry delivers 15 to 20 pages of spreadsheets to the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad. They list costs for feeding, clothing, billeting and maintaining 80,000 to 100,000 Pakistani troops in the volatile tribal area along the Afghan border, in support of U.S. counterterrorism efforts. No receipts are attached.

In response, the Defense Department has disbursed about $80 million monthly, or roughly $1 billion a year for the past six years, in one of the most generous U.S. military support programs worldwide. The U.S. aim has been to ensure that Pakistan remains the leading ally in combating extremism in South Asia.

But vague accounting, disputed expenses and suspicions about overbilling have recently made these payments to Pakistan highly controversial -- even within the U.S. government.

The poor showing in Monday's parliamentary election by the party of President Pervez Musharraf, whose government has overseen local disbursement of the money, may make Congress look closer at all U.S. financial assistance to the country. Questions have already been raised about where the money went and what the Bush administration got in return, given that pro-American sentiment in Pakistan is extremely low and al-Qaeda's presence is growing steadily stronger.

In perhaps the most disputed series of payments...

Full post @ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/02/20/ST2008022002819.html?hpid
=topnews

EU monitors say Pakistan poll was flawed

By Farhan Bokhari in Islamabad | February 20 2008 17:56

Election monitors from the European Union cast doubt on Wednesday on the fairness of Monday’s parliamentary elections in Pakistan, citing cases of authorities favouring the for­mer ruling party, which is allied to Pervez Musharraf, the president, during the campaign.

Even so, it was the opponents of Mr Musharraf who emer­ged victorious, with the late Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s party (PPP) winning most seats in the National Assembly. The pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid e Azam) suffered big losses.

No party won a maj­ority, so the PPP and the Pak­is­tan Muslim League-Nawaz, led by Nawaz Sharif, the former prime minister, are in talks on forming a coalition. They said on Wednesday night they expected progress by the weekend.

The EU findings were disclosed as George W. Bush, US president, described the polls as a ­“victory in the war on terror”.

India said it was ready to restart talks on unresolved issues with Pakistan.

Michael Gahler, a member of the European parliament and the EU’s chief observer, said: “A level playing field was not provided for the campaign, with public auth­orities primarily favouring the former...

Full post @ http://www.ft.com/cms/s/c4d652a0-dfdb-11dc-8073-0000779fd2ac,dwp_uuid=4d9dd3aa-5fbd-11dc-b0fe-0000779fd2ac.html

Top Judge's Fate May Spark Pakistan Coalition Discord (Update1) - Bloomberg Reports

By James Rupert and Khalid Qayum

Feb. 21 (Bloomberg) -- The fate of Pakistan's former chief justice, who is languishing under house arrest, may spark the first big disagreement between the country's two victorious opposition parties as they try to negotiate a power-sharing deal.

The head of the Pakistan Muslim League, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, has demanded the reinstatement of Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. President Pervez Musharraf fired Chaudhry and 59 other judges last year to end legal challenges to his re- election.

Beyond expressing support for judicial independence, Pakistan Peoples Party leader Asif Ali Zardari refuses to comment on what to do about Chaudhry, 59. That may put Zardari, widower of slain PPP leader Benazir Bhutto, in conflict with lawyers who last year rallied to the judiciary's defense, including some from his own party.

``If the Parliament thinks it's going to ignore the issue, the lawyers are not going to ignore it,'' Aitzaz Ahsan, head of the Supreme Court Bar Association and a PPP official, said in an interview in his home in Lahore. ``We are going to march on Islamabad from every direction.''

Lawyers, retired judges and parliamentarians will hold a protest rally from Lahore to Islamabad on March 9, the date Musharraf fired Chaudhry last year, to demand the reinstatement of judges, Ahsan told reporters in Lahore yesterday.

Ahsan himself has been detained without charge since November and was barred from speaking to the media until after the Feb. 18 election. Chaudhry is prohibited from meeting with…

Source : http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a7s6OWSPy1rU&refer=home

Musharraf vows not to resign

Declan Walsh in Islamabad and Mark Tran | guardian.co.uk | Wednesday February 20 2008

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf remains defiant. Photographer: Seppo Sirkka/EPA

President Pervez Musharraf today pledged to complete his five-year term in defiance of the opposition, setting the stage for a confrontation with the incoming government.

"We have to move forward in a way that we bring about a stable democratic government to Pakistan," the retired general told the Wall Street Journal, vowing to remain in office until 2012.

Musharraf's authority has been severely weakened by the crushing defeat of his Pakistan Muslim League (Q) party in Monday's general election. With all votes counted the party won just 42 of 268 directly elected seats.

Opposition leaders Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari are due to begin putting together a coalition government in Islamabad later today.

Sharif campaigned on a platform of ousting Musharraf, but Zardari, who leads the Pakistan People's party (PPP) has been more coy, leaving the door open to possible cooperation.

Zardari said he would like a small regional rival with ties to Musharraf to join a coalition government. The PPP emerged with the largest number of seats in the national assembly, but lacks a…

Full story @ http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/20/pakistan1/print

Opposition offers olive branch to Musharraf

By Isambard Wilkinson in Lahore | Last Updated: 5:22pm GMT 20/02/2008

Pakistan's largest political party made a conciliatory gesture to President Pervez Musharraf today by offering to include his allies in a new coalition government.

Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of Benazir Bhutto and co-chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), said he wanted to work with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), which governs Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, and was a junior partner in the last administration.

“I want to make a government along with MQM,” said Mr Zardari, whose party won the most seats in Monday’s election.

Backroom dealing designed to build a new coalition is now underway.

No single party has a majority in the 342-seat national assembly - but Mr Musharraf’s opponents won a clear victory and an opposition figure is likely to become Pakistan’s new prime minister.

The PPP, which came first in the popular vote, is seeking coalition partners.

Mr Zardari ruled out Mr Musharraf’s own party, the Pakistan Muslim League - Q (PML-Q).

While he alleged today that Mr Musharraf had held back final election results in order to tamper with the outcome in a handful of seats, he pointedly refrained from calling for the president’s…

Full Story @ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/20/wpak220.xml

Possible scenarios for Pakistan

Islamabad - Pakistan's political parties are jockeying for post-election position, with the opposition mulling a coalition government and President Pervez Musharraf trying to split them to shore up his power.

Here are some of the possible options after Monday's parliamentary poll:

· Opposition coalition: The Pakistan People's Party of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto and the party of Nawaz Sharif, the man Musharraf ousted in 1999, are the two big winners from the vote.

But neither can form a government on their own and both Sharif and Bhutto's widower, Asif Ali Zardari, say they want a coalition with other opposition parties.

Sharif and Zardari might meet on Thursday.

· The pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Q, which backed the former general Musharraf in the last parliament, came in a distant third in the vote.

Sharif and Zardari would likely include in any coalition the Awami National party, a secular, ethnic Pashtun grouping that ousted Islamic parties in northwest Pakistan.

They could also bring on board the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, a Karachi-based party that worked with the PML-Q in the last parliament.

This is the option that would cause the biggest problem for Musharraf, leaving the former general at the mercy of the new parliament.

· Pressure on Musharraf: The amount of pressure such an opposition coalition would put on Musharraf could vary.

In theory it could seek Musharraf's impeachment, although this would be difficult.

Not only would it require a vote in the Senate, the upper house of parliament still ruled by Musharraf supporters, but Musharraf could also try to dissolve parliament and head off the threat.

"Disputes or differences are likely to emerge between the presidency and the new government, but Musharraf has the major weapon of dissolution of assemblies," senior political and constitutional expert Anees Jillani said.

A riskier situation for Musharraf will come if the new government seeks the restoration of the country's deposed chief justice.

Musharraf deposed Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry under a state of emergency in November, in what opponents say was a bid to head off legal challenges to his re-election as president the previous month.

Sharif has said his first act in a new government would be to get Chaudhry back in his job. Chaudhry could then rule Musharraf's re-election illegal.

But Zardari has been non-committal on whether he would restore Chaudhry - one of a number of policy differences with Sharif, his late wife's one-time rival.

· PPP and pro-Musharraf coalition: Musharraf will try to persuade Zardari to work with him and form a government with smaller parties, likely including the ousted PML-Q.

He must convince Zardari that it suits the PPP - set to be the biggest party in parliament - to leave Sharif and avoid a stand-off with the president when power is within the party's grasp after 12 years.

Musharraf could prey on existing tensions in this scenario. Zardari served jail time while Sharif was PM and Sharif was twice responsible for ousting Bhutto.

But Zardari will remember that an overwhelming number of PPP supporters hold Musharraf's establishment at least morally responsible for the slaying of their leader in December.

· Street agitation: The opposition's election win headed off the immediate threat of protests against previously feared vote-rigging - the last thing Pakistan needed after the deadly riots that followed Bhutto's assassination.

But protests and violence are always a factor in Pakistan and never very far away. Lawyers demanding the restoration of the chief justice have vowed to launch a "long march" on March 9 to pressure Musharraf to give Chaudhry his job back.

The last lawyers' protests, in the first half of 2007, saw tens of thousands of people taking to the streets and were the start of Musharraf's current troubles.

[http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3&art_id=nw20080220120530414C659005]

Some Expect Pakistan to Be Less Cooperative

By Paul Wiseman and Zafar M. Sheikh

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan's democratic opposition grabbed an overwhelming lead over the allies of pro-U.S. President Pervez Musharraf in Monday's high-stakes parliamentary elections, according to state television. The results could leave Pakistan's next government facing intense public pressure to reduce its cooperation with the U.S. war on terrorism.

As results poured in overnight, Pakistan Television reported that the Pakistan Peoples Party of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto had grabbed 68 of 268 seats being contested in the National Assembly, the lower house of the parliament. The Pakistan Muslim League of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif won 62. The former ruling party, allied with Musharraf, had 27. Full results might be released later today.

Ruling party spokesman Tariq Azim conceded today that the party did not "do at all well."

Musharraf was not on the ballot, but a solid victory by opposition parties might lead Pakistan to reverse his policies against Islamist militants, says retired lieutenant general Hamid Gul, former head of the intelligence service. "The election is a referendum against Musharraf's policies," Gul says. The war on terrorism "is not our war. Why are we fighting this war?"...

Full story @ http://www.redorbit.com/news/general/1259815/some_expect_pakistan_to_be_less_cooperative/

index.html?source=r_general

Democracy takes revenge: Pak media

Rezaul H Laskar in Islamabad | PTI | February 19, 2008 | 16:53 IST

'Democracy takes revenge', this brief headline in a Pakistani newspaper on Tuesday summed up the result of the general election in which the opposition Pakistan People's Party and the Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz have emerged as key players.

With the PML-Q, derisively referred to as the 'King's party' for backing President Pervez Musharraf, heading towards the exit, the Daily Times carried a banner headline that read: 'All the King's men, gone!'

"President Pervez Musharraf's political allies, the PML-Q, appear to have lost their grip over the country's parliament, with the PPP (of slain leader Benazir Bhutto) and the PML-N (of former Premier Nawaz Sharif) overtaking the 'bicycle' in the election race," the Daily Times wrote. The bicycle was the PML-Q's election symbol.

The News, another leading English daily, summed up the stunning results as: 'Democracy takes revenge'. It was an apparent reference to a remark made by Bhutto's son Bilawal, who was named the PPP chairman after her death. As official and unofficial results were tabulated, it emerged that the PPP and the PML-N had gained the most.

A front-page comment in The News titled 'The Writing on the Wall' said: "All the collaborators and their henchmen, barring a few in urban protected political pockets, have been wiped out in a historic sweep of the nation against General (retired) Pervez Musharraf and his obstinate rule.

"In less than 12 months, since the fateful day of March 9 last year, when the then General had invaded the country's apex court and attacked its Chief Justice, every concerned patriot watched him slide down the tube, one step after another. People were vainly hoping that he would wake up to the reality."

Several PML-Q stalwarts had to bite the dust in Monday's polls.

PML-Q chief and former premier Chowdhry Shujaat Hussain, Musharraf aide and former railway minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, former foreign minister Khurshid M Kasuri and former National Assembly speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain were among prominent PML-Q leaders who fell by the wayside.

Some other stories in the newspaper were headlined thus: 'Nation Votes for Change', 'How the mighty fell', 'A Referendum against Musharraf' and 'Silent Revolution, Sweet Revenge'.

"Simply remarkable! The power of vote has outshone the powers-that-be. A silent revolution of the silent majority has struck Pakistan and the otherwise voiceless people have said a big but decisive 'No," said a report in The News.

The Pakistan Post wrote about 'Goliaths who fell' and the Business Recorder about 'Musharraf allies face shocking defeat in vote'.

A leading daily described Sharif's triumphant return in a report headlined 'Lion roars again'.

The PPP's performance was also acknowledged with an apt headline: 'PPP comes home'. Bhutto had returned to Pakistan from self-exile in October last year to lead her party in the election campaign but was assassinated in a suicide attack two months later.

Source: http://www.rediff.com///news/2008/feb/19pakpoll5.htm

Musharraf under pressure to resign

By Paul Wiseman and Zafar M. Sheikh, USA TODAY

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf came under pressure to resign Tuesday, a day after his allies in parliament suffered a devastating defeat at the polls. Lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan, a hero of pro-democracy protests last year and a dark-horse contender to be next prime minister, on Tuesday called on pro-U.S. Musharraf to step down.

Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, whose party was a big winner in Monday's vote, said he would meet with the other leaders of other parties to decide whether to impeach Musharraf when the next parliament convenes.

"He is completely finished. He has no option," but resigning, says retired Gen. Mirza Aslam Beg, Pakistan's former army chief. "It will be very embarrassing for him to stay on with a hostile parliament."

The official tally from Monday's election has not been completed yet, but state television reported that Musharraf's supporters in the former ruling party had so far managed to win just 39 of 272 seats up for grabs in the National Assembly, the lower house of Pakistan's parliament.

Pakistan Television said that at least 87 seats had gone to the Pakistan Peoples Party of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto; at least 66 went to the Pakistan Muslim League of Sharif, the man Musharraf overthrew in a 1999 coup. Musharraf wasn't up for re-election Monday, but he might as well have been: "The election was a vote of no-confidence in Musharraf," said Sen. Latif Khosa of the Peoples Party.

"The public said goodbye to Musharraf and his polices."

"This was (a) negative vote against Musharraf and his party and America," says Humayun Gauhar, an Islamabad publisher, political commentator and ghost writer of Musharraf's bestselling 2006 memoir. Gauhar figured that the opposition would be able to cobble together the two-thirds majority needed to impeach Musharraf if he didn't resign first.

The U.S. government has stood behind Musharraf since he reversed Pakistan's support for the fundamentalist Taliban regime in neighboring Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks. Gauhar and others say the next parliament will be less willing to support the U.S. war on terror.

Sharif has even said he's considered naming as president rogue nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan, seen as a hero in Pakistan for developing a nuclear bomb and in Washington as a villain for selling nuclear secrets to North Korea and other countries. Monday's contest — which Musharraf had called "the mother of all elections" — is supposed to nudge Pakistan toward full-fledged democracy, nearly nine years after former army chief Musharraf took power.

Without waiting for the final results, a rejuvenated opposition began planning to undo some of Musharraf's most controversial moves, including his Nov. 3 decision to purge the judiciary of independent judges. Sharif said the judges — including popular Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikar Muhammad Chaudhry — should be returned to their old jobs.

Many analysts expected that the Peoples Party and Sharif's Muslim League would attempt to form a coalition government. But the combination could be combustible; the two parties were arch-enemies in the '90s, each trading two terms as the ruling party. "The rank and file of both parties hate each other likes a cat hates a dog," Gauhar says.

Source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-02-19-musharraf-pakistan_N.htm?csp=34

Pakistanis Deal a Blow to Musharraf

By Candace Rondeaux and Pamela Constable | Tuesday, February 19, 2008 | Washington Post Foreign Service

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Feb. 19 -- Voters in Pakistan appeared to deliver a sharp rebuke to President Pervez Musharraf on Monday, handing significant victories to the country's two leading opposition parties in parliamentary elections, according to early returns and Pakistani politicians.

Official vote tallies were not expected to be released for several days, but by early Tuesday morning, there were indications that the party of Musharraf, a top U.S. ally, had fallen far out of favor with voters. The country's opposition groups were outpacing other parties by wide margins in several key provinces, including Punjab, home to more than half of this country's 80 million eligible voters.

The president of Musharraf's faction of the Pakistan Muslim League, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, along with several other prominent party leaders, lost their seats in parliament, according to Pakistan's Dawn News, an English-language television station.

In a televised address early Monday, Musharraf, who had promised to hold "free, fair and transparent" elections, pledged to abide by the results.

"This is the voice of the nation," he said on state-run Pakistan Television. "Everyone should accept the results. That includes myself."

Sporadic reports of clashes at polling stations and several bombings across Pakistan appeared to have kept many voters at home, particularly in urban areas. Opposition parties and election observers cited some instances of rigging and voter intimidation.

Pakistan has experienced widespread tumult since last year, when huge protests erupted following Musharraf's decision to fire the chief justice of the Supreme Court and place him and several other jurists under house arrest. In the following months, public frustration grew over increasing insurgent violence, rising consumer prices and corruption. In December, following the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, the president's popularity fell to an ...

Full story @ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/18/AR2008021800830.html

Pakistan Opposition Poised to Win Anti-Musharraf Vote (Update2)

By Khalid Qayum and James Rupert

Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan's opposition parties were poised to win parliamentary elections as voters sought an end to President Pervez Musharraf's eight years of military rule.

``It seems, according to predictions, that the opposition has won,'' Tariq Azeem, a spokesman for the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-i-Azam said in a telephone interview from the capital, Islamabad.

Early results from the 64,000 polling booths showed gains for the late Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party and former prime minister Mohammad Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League. A two-thirds majority would give the opposition the mandate to press Musharraf to reverse constitutional changes that have kept him in power since a 1999 military coup.

``Going by the trend the opposition parties will win, if they don't sweep they will at least get the majority,'' Talat Masood, former general and a political and defense analyst, said in a telephone interview from Islamabad. ``Definitely, the results are being delayed and maybe the authorities will try to take advantage of the night but I doubt very much they will be able to manipulate.''

With 100 of 272 constituencies reporting, Bhutto's party won 28 seats in the National Assembly, with Sharif's group securing 32, according to the private Online International News Network's Web site. The Pro-Musharraf party won in 12 districts, it said. The official Election Commission tally showed Bhutto and Sharif's party with six seats each and Musharraf's backers with one victory, out of 21 parliamentary seats.

Won't Dislodge

Even a landslide opposition victory won't necessarily dislodge the president. Musharraf, 64, has the constitutional authority to dissolve parliament. That power and concerns about rigged balloting lead...

Full story @ http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aOAIy618Jeik&refer=home

Where on Earth we have deaths on elections?

Nine killed in polling day violence in Pakistan: officials ISLAMABAD, Feb 18 (AFP) - At least 14 people were killed and nearly 100 injured in election-related violence across Pakistan on Sunday and Monday, officials said. Nine of the deaths came on election day itself. On Monday, six people died in shootings in Punjab between rival party supporters, officials said. Two others died in the southern province of Sindh and one death was reported in Karak town of North West Frontier Province. A security official said about 100 people were also injured in election violence on polling day. But interior ministry spokesman Brig Javed Cheema said Monday's polling was generally peaceful and orderly except for sporadic incidents. In Lahore, the victims of Sunday's shooting included Asif Ashraf, a provincial assembly candidate from former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N party. In another incident, a worker for Sharif's PML-N party was shot dead by rivals outside a polling station in the industrial city of Sialkot, north of Lahore, on Monday, said party vice president Javed Hashmi. In Sindh province’s Ghotki town, six people were injured during a clash between supporters of PPP and the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Q during polling, police said. And in Bajaur tribal district bordering Afghanistan, a bomb blast ripped through a wall of a polling station while around 300 people queued to cast their votes, officials and witnesses said. No one was injured and polling resumed shortly afterwards. A rocket-propelled grenade hit a polling station in a remote part of southern Sindh province without causing casualties, a police official said. Separately, a bomb blast was heard in Quetta's Nauroz Sports Complex area where several polling stations were located, while a small bomb exploded near a polling station on the city's outskirts, police and witnesses said. There were no reports of casualties or damage. Also In Baluchistan province, two small bombs exploded separately near uncrowded polling stations, but there were no casualties, police said.(Posted @ 20:30 PST)

Posted by DAWN.COM

While many vote out their anger through voting I still find it difficult to come to terms with BB's tragic death...our immeasurable

Bhutto's incomplete legacy

By Aryn Baker/Islamabad | Sunday, Feb. 17, 2008 | TIMES

Benazir Bhutto was a divisive figure. Adored by the millions who saw her as the inheritor of her father's political legacy and heir to his Pakistan People's Party, she will always be remembered as "Pinky." It was an affectionate nickname used by those who had the opportunity to know her in earlier days, before the title Prime Minister preceded her name, or now, "assassinated former Prime Minister." But many others see her as an opportunist, a young idealist who studied at the knee of her father only to grow into a potent political force on her own, her good intentions often stymied by ambition. Bhutto's posthumously printed memoir, Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West, will do little to change those ingrained opinions. That's a pity because it is a book that should stand on its own.

At times choppy, disjointed and repetitive, Reconciliation reads more like a manuscript than a finished piece, testament perhaps to an editing process curtailed by the death of its author on the 27th of December. As such it is a fitting monument to an incomplete life. Jagged and harrowing references to the October 19th bombing of her welcome home rally in Karachi, in which some 150 died, are inserted almost randomly into otherwise fluid prose that was written long before. The ubiquitous references to terrorism, however, underscore an important point. As a Muslim, and a victim, Bhutto is uniquely poised to present to her audience an impassioned plea for understanding. The war we should all be worrying about is not between Islam and the West, she says, but between moderates and extremists.

Bhutto treats the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, as a personal affront, one that "twisted the values of a great and noble religion and potentially set the hopes and dreams of a better life for Muslims back a generation." Muslims, she says, "became [al Qaeda's] victims too." For the first half of the book, Bhutto attempts to reclaim Islam from the perversion of fundamentalists that would use it for political advantage, explaining how the concept of jihad, meaning a personal struggle "to follow the right path," had been adulterated for the purposes of fighting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. She puts the treatment of women as described in the Koran into context, demonstrating how at the time it was revolutionary and far more progressive than what was practiced by contemporary Christian and Jewish societies. The problem, she laments, is that Islam's progressive traditions calcified in the 17th century, when religion was reduced to a tool to consolidate power.

Her call for a resurrection of ijtihad — the early tradition of challenge and inquiry that demanded a re-interpretation of the Koran relevant to the current era — is bold. Were she alive at the time of publication, she most certainly would have been charged with blasphemy by fundamentalist circles. Bhutto offers no new revelations — any close scholar of modern Islam will have made the same observations. But her reiteration of the Koran's message of peace and tolerance bears repeating; it is one that is often drowned out by the more headline-grabbing missives of those calling for death to America.

While short, the chapter refuting Samuel Huntington's theory of the Clash of Civilizations is ...

Full article @ http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1714147,00.html

Pakistan celebrates a final end to military rule — but what next?

Jeremy Page in Lahore and Zahid Hussain in Islamabad | Feruary 19 | The Times

President Pervez Musharraf’s supporters conceded defeat last night in a landmark parliamentary election that could seal his political fate and resurrect democracy in Pakistan after eight years of military rule.

But while the two main opposition parties appeared to have swept the vote, neither was expected to win an outright majority, setting the stage for a coalition government in this chronically unstable country.

Despite 470,000 police and troops on the streets, turnout was only 30-40 per cent due to a wave of suicide attacks by Islamic militants since July, including one that killed Benazir Bhutto, the former Prime Minister, on December 27. Voting was relatively peaceful given the security threat — although Ms Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) claimed 15 members were killed in an attempt to deter voters.

Final results are not expected until tomorrow, but preliminary figures suggest that the PPP will win the most seats followed by the Pakistan Muslim League (N) led by Nawaz Sharif, another former Prime Minister.

The PML (Q), which split from Mr Sharif’s party and supports President Musharraf, was lagging in third place with several of its leading figures — including the party’s leader — losing their seats. Tariq Azeem, a PML (Q) spokesman, said: “People have given their verdict. We respect it. We congratulate the PML (N) and PPP. As far as we are concerned, we will be willing to sit on opposition benches if final results prove that we have lost.”

The makeup of a coalition government will be negotiated in the next few days but a frontrunner to be prime minister is Makhdoom Amin Fahim, the 68-year-old PPP vice-chairman and veteran Bhutto loyalist.

The new government could then decide whether President Musharraf, who seized power in a coup in 1999 and became a key US ally in the War on Terror, should be impeached for imposing emergency rule last year to secure his own re-election. It could also determine whether Pakistan continues to co-operate with Britain and the US to the same degree in a campaign against al-Qaeda and Taleban militants near the Afghanistan border.

Full story @ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article3387244.ece

Pak, Egypt emerge as new IT destinations to complement India

17 Feb, 2008, 1805 hrs IST, PTI

MUMBAI: India may be taking giant leaps in the IT/ITeS sector while countries like neighbouring Pakistan and Egypt are also taking tiny steps to corner a share of large global business.

However, both feel they will complement the Indian expertise with their individual niche and not compete as the pie was big enough for all.

Pakistan's IT industry has grown to the size of $3 billion and is expected to grow to $10 billion by 2010-11. Similarly, Egypt, a very new entrant, is doing business of $450-480 million and will touch $1.1 billion by 2010.

These countries are in addition to a number of offshore BPO destinations like Philippines, Eastern Europe, Latin America and China which cater to the global opportunity. "The cost of doing business in Pakistan is 30 per cent lesser than in India," Jehan Ara, President, Pakistan Software Houses Association (Pasha) said. Pasha is the representative body of IT/ITes industry of Pakistan. Pakistan, as the multinationals are fast realising, is aptly positioned to facilitate Saudi Arabia, Baharain, Oman and other Mid-Eastern countries. Similarly, Egypt, which has centres of IBM and Orange, is a door to the Arab World, Europe and Africa, says Amin Khairaldin, Advisor, Information Technology Industry Development Agecy, Egypt. "We seek to compliment India not compete with it. Together we can win. The demand is so huge that one cannot fulfil it alone," Khairaldin said. A NASSCOM-Everest study on the India BPO industry has pegged the total addressable market at $220-280 billion. India, which at current growth levels can secure business worth $30 billion, can stretch target $50 billion by managing supply side constraints, competition from other shores and sustainability of cost advantage. "Pakistani IT companies like Systems Ltd and Netsol have established offices in Bangalore. We will seek to compliment the industry," Pasha President Jehan Ara said. In Egypt, after Satyam and Wipro set up their centres, another large Indian IT company was sending a due diligence team to Cairo. "The Indian company has in fact cancelled Latin America as a destination to chose Egypt," ITIDA Advisor Amin Khairaldin said. All this despite the fact that both countries have history of political instability. "There is no safe place today in the world. Despite all instability, there was no stoppage of work here," he added. Jehan Ara too shares similar views. "MNCs like Microsoft, Oracle have set up offices here. IBM is doubling its team in Pakistan and all this despite instability," she said. Trade Association for the UK Hi-Tech Industry Chairman Richard Sykes opines that the world today was a series of shores and countries like Egypt, Pakistan and even Bangladesh are doing good business. "India is a giant shore but smaller companies in countries like Bangladesh or Egypt were doing good business," he said. Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/rssarticleshow/msid-2789805,prtpage-1.cms

Pakistan army chief ends role in politics

By Isambard Wilkinson in Lahore |Last Updated: 1:12am GMT 18/02/2008

The new head of Pakistan's army has ordered the military to end its involvement in the country's politics.

See: 1. Ahmed Rashid: Expect anything but a free and fair election

2. Pakistan's 'feudals' could aid Musharraf

Gen Ashfaq Kiani's decree, issued on the eve of today's parliamentary election, reversed President Pervez Musharraf's policy of including the military in politics and removes a key pillar of support from him.

A senior military source told The Daily Telegraph that "the move includes plans to overhaul the role of the military intelligence agencies in national politics", paving the way for a withdrawal of political support for the president.

The source claimed that one of Mr Musharraf's close allies, who is the head of one of the military intelligence agencies, would be removed from his post after the election.

Gen Kiani has recalled hundreds of army personnel from posts in civilian institutions - civilian officials have long complained about military officers taking up senior posts in the civil service, universities and ministries.

Although a parliamentary democracy, elected governments in Pakistan have been corrupt, unstable and prone to military intervention.

The country's first elections were conducted under the rule of Field Marshal Ayub Khan, who said that Pakistan was not climatically suited to true democracy.

And as the nation goes to the polls today, army officers fear political violence or suicide bomb attacks may draw the military back on to the streets.

Authorities have imposed a curfew in the northwestern town of Parachinar after Saturday's suicide attack left up to 47 people dead.

Mr Musharraf, who stepped down as army chief two months ago, is not directly involved in today's election. But the vote is crucial to him as a negative result would leave him vulnerable to impeachment by a hostile ...

Full story @ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/18/wpak118.xml

Musharraf May Face Impeachment by Pakistan's New Parliament

By Khalid Qayum and Khaleeq Ahmed

Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistani voters decide today whether to empower a new parliament to challenge President Pervez Musharraf's military-backed rule.

His opponents, poised to win a majority, may try to impeach him if they win the required two-thirds of seats. Power sharing is likely if they fall short of that threshold.

``The national mood clearly indicates that political parties opposed to Musharraf will win a clear majority,'' said Hassan Abbas, a Harvard University political scientist. ``Even in moderately fair elections, anti-Musharraf parties will have an upper hand.''

Uncertainty likely will follow the election as lawmakers decide how to employ their power in a politically unstable, nuclear-armed country on the frontline of the war against terrorism. A suicide attack killed more than 40 people on the last day of campaigning on Feb. 16 after terrorist and sectarian killings doubled last year.

Pakistan's two main opposition parties -- the late Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party and former prime minister Mohammad Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League -- both have called for Musharraf to step down. Sharif, 58, has gone further, promising impeachment proceedings. While not ruling that out, Bhutto's party has said it's open to sharing power with Musharraf.

Even a landslide opposition victory won't necessarily dislodge the president. Musharraf, 64, has the constitutional authority to dissolve parliament. That power and concerns about rigged balloting lead some analysts to predict that opposition clout will remain limited.

Weak Coalition?

``The next government will most likely be a coalition led by a weak prime minister facing an arbitrary president,'' said Ishtiaq Ahmed, associate professor of international relations at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad.

Events have swung the public against the president in recent months, including former prime minister Bhutto's Dec. 27 assassination while campaigning. Support also has been undercut by his imposition of emergency rule in November, sacking of Supreme Court judges and detention of thousands of opponents, as well as inflation and electric-power cuts.

His approval rating dropped to 15 percent, from 30 percent in November, according to a late January opinion poll released Feb. 11 by the Washington-based International Republican Institute. About 75 percent wanted him to resign, up eight points from November.

Full story @ http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=a5qjsd.c.sjs&refer=india

Hamid Mir's letter to journalists

Dear Journalist Colleagues,

Thanks for coming to this press conference on the invitation of Pakistan Federal Union Journalists. As you know that Musharraf regime have banned many TV anchors including me without any written charge against us. The main objective of banning us was to pressurize Pakistani media to accept a new code of conduct for print and electronic journalism. This new code was drafted just to manipulate elections.Musharraf regime started pressurizing us to accept new media laws in 2006.I was served with a notice from the government in October 2006 when I hosted a talk show on the role of intelligence agencies in politics.

I responded that notice through my lawyer and took a stand that I never violated any law. Government never issued any notice to me after my response. In January 2007 some top government officials offered me to join state controlled PTV.They said that private TV channels have no future and a big action will soon be taken against all of them. I refused. My office was attacked in March 2007 in Islamabad and I was also beaten by the police.Pervez Musharraf apologized to me after that incident but later on some more incidents took place. His words were different from the actions of his government. Journalists were kidnapped, arrested and tortured many times in different cities. Many of us received threats. I wrote in Daily Jang on May 2nd 2007 that government have decided to ban live TV programs. The government was again angry in August 2007 when I wrote about its plans against media and judiciary in “The News”. I sent my family outside Pakistan after some threats in June 2007.In September and October 2007, President House directly tried to silence me. They offered many bribes.

Emergency was imposed on November 3rd 2007.All the TV channels were banned. We were not available on cable but I was doing my talk show for the satellite viewers. When I started participating in the protest rallies organized by PFUJ and RIUJ, I was informed by a minister of the previous regime that I could be killed in a small road accident.Musharraf regime manipulated to shut down our transmission centre from Dubai on November 16th.Geo TV remained banned for more than two months. Its transmission was resumed in the third week of January 2008 when Musharraf got assurance that I and Shahid Masood will not appear on Geo TV. He dictated his wish when the economic survival of the Geo TV was in danger. It was a clear blackmailing.

Today the Pakistani media is working under pressure.Musharraf regime have plans to rigg the elections. I demand that Musharraf should come out with some justification of banning us with evidence otherwise we have no doubts that “we are banned just to protect his rigging plans”. Rigging few anchors will not help Musharraf. I am sure that Pakistani media will not allow Musharraf to rig the elections openly.Media will fight against the terror and tyranny on February 18th.

Hamid Mir

[Coutesy http://www.majagama.com/2008/02/17/hamid-mir-writes-to-journalists/]

This will end only when we want it to end.

Only voting out the oppressors will resolve our miseries...

The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding go out to meet it.

Pakistan ponders meaning of democracy

By Lyse Doucet | BBC News, Pakistan

From where I stood outside the parliament, I could see the scrum bristling with microphones and the impressive alphabet of Pakistani private TV channels - Geo, AAJ, ARY, Dawn, to name just a few.

Then one journalist seized the moment and thrust his microphone ahead of the rest.

"What's your definition of democracy?" he shouted.

Pakistan's information minister, finely suited and finely spoken, responded in impeccable English.

Then the same journalist came back at him, rising a bit more on his toes, in this little dance between Pakistani journalists and officialdom.

"Does it include the manipulation of democracy?" he demanded.

That is the question in Pakistan today: what does democracy mean?

Ballot-box victory

What does it mean in a country that has had both extraordinary successes and spectacular failures in the politics of the people?

Since the shocking assassination of Benazir Bhutto, archive footage of a 36-year-old woman smiling in her shimmering emerald green tunic and trademark white scarf taking the oath of office as prime minister in 1988, has been played again and again.

It represented a resounding victory won through the ballot box after years of repressive martial law.

"She looks so young," I remarked to a fellow journalist who, like me, was in Pakistan to report on Benazir Bhutto's rise to power as the first female prime minister in the Islamic world.

I suppose we were all younger as we witnessed this history, so perhaps her youth did not seem so impressive at the time.

I watched the images again this week and one caught my eye: the young Benazir signs a gold embossed book and, as she does so, steals a shy look past the edge of her head scarf at the establishment figure of the elderly president, Ghulam Ishaq Khan.

Less than two years later he sacked her for alleged incompetence and corruption.

Fateful rally

In 1988 the mood in Pakistan had been of heady excitement but also deep uncertainty.

The rule of the people seemed to have returned but how would it sit with a powerful army grown accustomed to being completely in charge?

Twenty years on Pakistanis are going to the ballot box again.

Once again it is meant to move this country from military to civilian rule and, once again, Benazir Bhutto is the most recognised face.

But this time she is just an image from archive footage on huge, brightly painted campaign billboards.

And she is a voice, a ghost that hangs over this process.

Full story @ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7247096.stm

Doubts on Fairness and Security for Pakistan Vote

February 17, 2008 | By JANE PERLEZ | New York Times

GUJRAT, Pakistan — The winners of what may be the most anticipated election this country has held will be settled the usual way on Monday, by the number of ballots and fierce arguments over how they are counted. That, and perhaps the number of guns.

The nationwide parliamentary elections are intended to usher in an era of democracy in Pakistan after months of political turmoil and nearly a decade of military rule under President Pervez Musharraf.

But here in Punjab Province, the biggest prize, the bare-knuckle election fight has included charges of armed intimidation by the police and private militias, as well as bribes through government favors. The threat of violence and the suspicion of rigging hang thick in the air. There has even been bickering over who should operate the polling stations.

A street-level view of the campaign, in fact, reveals the many stubborn shortcomings of Pakistan’s politics, where the parties are organized less around policies than people, often from feudal families who have held sway for generations.

This election battle is especially sharp because Punjab is the home of the political patrons of Mr. Musharraf, the powerful and hard-nosed Chaudhry clan, which is working hard to keep its grip across the province, Pakistan’s most populous. The scion of the family, Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, a confidant of Mr. Musharraf, is the president’s choice to be the next prime minister should his party win.

On the other side, Asif Ali Zardari, husband of the assassinated opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, and now the leader of the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party, asserts that his forces will sweep much of Punjab’s rich harvest of 147 parliamentary seats, ensuring a victory for his party, if the voting is free and fair.

The question on everyone’s minds is how free and fair will the elections be.

Ahmad Mukhtar, a wealthy businessman and longtime stalwart of Ms. Bhutto’s, has made a special fuss about guns.

The Chaudhrys, he asserts, use a private family militia and the Punjab police to intimidate voters. The intention, he said, is to keep his supporters away from the polls and tip the vote in favor of the incumbent, Chaudhry Shujaat, the chairman of Mr. Musharraf’s party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Q.

Full story @ http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/17/world/asia/17pstan.html?_r=1&sq=pakistan&st=
nyt&oref=slogin&scp=2&pagewanted=print

Bhutto widower: poll rigging will start war

Sunday Times | 17 February | Christina Lamb | Lahore

BENAZIR BHUTTO’S widowed husband Asif Ali Zardari has warned that Pakistan will face massive violence which could lead to its break-up if the government of President Pervez Musharraf carries out alleged plans to rig and disrupt tomorrow’s elections.

“Up till now I’ve shown absolute patience,” he said in an emotional interview with The Sunday Times last night as campaigning came to a close.

“My wife has been killed, yet I’ve calmed people down, stopped them protesting, I’ve called no strike. But I’m telling you, people are absolutely on the warpath. If the elections are rigged the situation will go out of my hands. We’ll have no choice but to take to the streets.”

Zardari was speaking after a suicide bombing outside election offices in northwest Pakistan left 37 dead, mostly members of his Pakistan People’s party (PPP), and heightened fears of polling day violence to deter voters. Ninety people were injured.

One suicide bomber rammed an explosive-laden car into the crowd of PPP supporters as they prepared to take part in a celebratory meal. A second car bombing near a military checkpoint claimed another two deaths.

“They’ve killed 37 of my boys,” he said in a choked voice. “And I fear this is just the start.”

Zardari took over running Bhutto’s PPP, after her assassination six weeks ago, jointly with their son Bilawal who is studying at Oxford: “I feel her spirit is with me and I won’t let her down. But I fear they did not kill Benazir just to let us win . . .

“We’ve played our part responsibly. We’ve taken part in the elections rather than boycotted. Now it’s up to them to give us a free run. People are angry, they are on the breadline, despite the $60 billion [£30 billion] windfall Musharraf has enjoyed over the past eight years. They want change and they want democracy. If we’re allowed free and fair elections I’m 100% sure we will get a majority.”

Increasingly seen as a...

Full story @ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article3382320.ece

The posthumous poll

To a fanfare of suicide-bomb blasts, Pakistanis are due to deliver their verdict on wheat, America and Pervez Musharraf

Feb 14th 2008 | LAHORE | From The Economist print edition

ON A lofty platform, out of suicide-bomb range, Shahbaz Sharif, a leader of Pakistan's second opposition party, the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) or PML (N), promises poor Lahoris change. “Our leaders have been buying themselves bullet-proof cars and doing nothing for the people!” he thunders. A thousand men—about half the number expected to turn up to a dusty bazaar in the city—roar in approval. Then Mr Sharif is gone: whisked away by a motorcade that may include the two bullet-proof cars given to the PML-N by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.

The run-up to a general election due on February 18th has seen relatively little campaigning—but lots of violence. Since the assassination on December 27th of Benazir Bhutto, leader of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), over 400 people have been killed by terrorists, mostly in suicide-bombings. The Awami National Party, the only outfit campaigning hard near the radicalised frontier with Afghanistan, suffered bomb attacks on its rallies on February 9th and 11th, in which 36 perished.

This week the government struck back. In Baluchistan province, it arrested the Taliban's former operations chief in Afghanistan, Mullah Mansoor Dadullah. The same day in north-western Pakistan kidnappers seized Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan, Tariq Azizuddin, with his guard and driver. They have reportedly offered to swap them for Mr Dadullah.

The violence may deter many Pakistanis from voting. Even in safer times, most do not bother with it: 41% of voters turned out in the country's previous election in 2002. A low turnout would help President Pervez Musharraf, a recently demobbed army ruler, to rig the election on behalf of his political allies, the Pakistan Muslim League (Q), or PML(Q). Rigging by army spies is another Pakistani election tradition. The International Republican Institute (IRI) has withdrawn election monitors on security grounds—and having been refused permission to conduct exit polls.

Full Story @ http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10696056