March 2007

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The Rediff Interview/Benazir Bhutto
 

 

 

March 2007

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Official US paper asks for free and fair elections in Pakistan this year


Islamabad March 30, 2007: The official U.S. newspaper ‘Roll Call’ that services the United States Congress has asked President Bush to push General Musharraf for holding free and fair elections in the country this year. ‘Roll Call’ is believed to wield considerable influence in US policy-making circles.

Here is the full text of the article titled “Bush Should Push Musharraf on Elections This Year in Pakistan” written by its Executive Editor Morton M Kondracke.

Bush Should Push Musharraf on Elections This Year in Pakistan

By Morton M. Kondracke
Roll Call Executive Editor
March 29, 2007


As a matter of hard-headed realism, not just pro-democratic ideology, President Bush should pressure Pakistan’s military ruler Pervez Musharraf to hold free elections this year.

That’s because, perhaps sooner than later, the increasingly unpopular Musharraf could go the way of the Shah of Iran, who was toppled by Islamic extremists.

And also, Musharraf’s leading Democratic opponent, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, says she would do a better job than Musharraf in fighting the resurgent Taliban that’s menacing Afghanistan.

“As prime minister,” Bhutto told me in an interview, “I’d control the tribal areas of Pakistan,” where Osama bin Laden is believed to be hiding and the Taliban is ascendant. “I did it before, when the drug lords were in control and I’m confident I can clear out the Taliban.”

As opposed to the hostile relationship that Musharraf maintains with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Bhutto says, “a democratic Pakistan would help Afghanistan stabilize, relieving pressure on NATO troops.”

Bush late last month dispatched Vice President Cheney to Pakistan to read the riot act to Musharraf about rising Taliban infiltration into Afghanistan, reportedly warning that Democrats in Congress might cut off aid to his regime if he was not more aggressive.

In fact, House Democrats, as part of their first “100 days” homeland security bill, conditioned future military aid to Pakistan on Bush’s certifying that Musharraf was making “all possible efforts” to oust the Taliban from his country, but the provision was pulled from the Senate bill at the administration’s request.

Thwarting a new Taliban offensive is uppermost on the U.S. priority list, followed by concern that nuclear-armed Pakistan not be taken over by Islamic fundamentalists.

Democratic development in Pakistan is somewhere on the list, but it’s not at the top. It needs to be, because democracy is intimately connected to controlling extremism.

Americans — including Bush — have the idea that Musharraf, like Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, is all that stands between stability and Islamic fundamentalist rule.

That view is stoutly disputed by Bhutto and Pakistan experts such as Boston University’s Husain Haqqani, both of whom pointed out to me that in Pakistan’s 2002 elections, Islamic parties received just 11.3 percent of the vote.

According to Haqqani, a former Pakistani diplomat and government official, the United States has contributed to a “Middle Easternization” of Pakistan, actually strengthening Islamic forces while bolstering military rulers who prevent democratic political development.

“The Islamists are slowly expanding for one simple reason: You can shut down everything else, but you can’t shut down the mosques. If you shut down secular parties, as Musharraf is doing, the only other choice the people have is the Islamists.”

Bhutto noted that Pakistan’s former military dictator, Zia-ul-Haq, who in 1977 overthrew and executed her father, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, formed an alliance with radical Islamists in Pakistan and, with U.S. help, aided Afghan rebels who became the Taliban.

Musharraf, who came to power in a coup in 1999, continued recognizing the Taliban until the U.S. demanded his support after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, but Bhutto said he has continued fostering fundamentalism — partly by starving public education and allowing fundamentalist madrassas to flourish instead.

Bhutto told me that she hopes the Bush administration will follow up on Bush’s own call last year for “open and honest elections” this year by pressuring Musharraf to allow her and her former democratic rival, Nawaz Sharif, back into the country to campaign, and by funding “robust” election observer teams to watch the voting, scheduled for November.

Haqqani told me he thinks that the administration fears that if Bhutto were elected prime minister, the Pakistani army would refuse to allow her to govern. But that opposition might be overcome if Bhutto agreed to let Musharraf stay on as president. She told me it is “premature” to discuss Musharraf’s future. It’s obviously a bargaining chip.

Musharraf is resisting free elections and is planning to rely on the parliament elected in 2002 — in what widely was regarded as rigged voting — to elect him president.

When Pakistan’s chief justice threatened to block that move and insisted that the country’s constitution be respected — which also requires Musharraf to quit the army — he had the justice arrested. That has led to demonstrations by lawyers and a Musharraf crackdown on news organizations reporting on the protests.

Musharraf’s popularity is plunging, though there is no threat — yet — of the massive popular unrest of the kind that led to the Shah’s ouster in 1979.

This is a moment for Bush to intervene — along with Congress — to forestall that possibility by fostering real democracy.

Four Senators, including Foreign Relations Chairman Joseph Biden (D-Del.), wrote Musharraf a polite letter March 12 urging him to let Bhutto and Sharif back to campaign and also to step up efforts to control the Taliban.

The outgoing U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, Ryan Crocker, now ambassador to Iraq, told Pakistanis that the U.S. would not pressure Musharraf on elections. It’s probably good diplomacy not to apply the pressure publicly, but Bush should have a friendly phone call soon with his strategic ally and warn him that stifling democracy only helps foster terrorism.

 Makhdoom Amin Fahim condemns killing of political activists in Rahimyar Khan


Islamabad, 30 January 2007: The Chairman Alliance for Restoration of Democracy, Makhdoom Amin Fahim has condemned the killing of three political activists in Jamaldin Wali, Rahimyar Khan including an ex-Nazim while organising a public meeting of a political party.

Makhdoom Amin Fahim in a statement said that it is the basic human right of the people to freely express their point of view and hold public gathering for the purpose. It is ironic that the regime which allows the extremist elements to run amok and create law and order situation in the Capital is busy in stifling the political forces. The regime seems to be hell bent to push the moderate and political forces to the wall just to create a bogey to show the West in the shape of extremists so to make the West believe that there is no political alternative in Pakistan.

The Chairman ARD asked the regime that is Pakistan a personal fiefdom of a dictator or it is a country envisioned by Quaid-e-Azam for which Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto sacrificed his life? He said that the Pakistan Peoples Party under the leadership of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto is striving for a just society where every political party would have level playing field.

Makhdoom Amin Fahim urged the civil society and the Human Rights Organisations to raise their voice against this state oppression.

He also demanded a judicial inquiry into the incident and to bring to justice all those involved in the brutal murder of political activists in Rahimyar Khan.

Makhdoom Amin Fahim condemns killing of political activists in Rahimyar Khan


Islamabad, 30 January 2007: The Chairman Alliance for Restoration of Democracy, Makhdoom Amin Fahim has condemned the killing of three political activists in Jamaldin Wali, Rahimyar Khan including an ex-Nazim while organising a public meeting of a political party.

Makhdoom Amin Fahim in a statement said that it is the basic human right of the people to freely express their point of view and hold public gathering for the purpose. It is ironic that the regime which allows the extremist elements to run amok and create law and order situation in the Capital is busy in stifling the political forces. The regime seems to be hell bent to push the moderate and political forces to the wall just to create a bogey to show the West in the shape of extremists so to make the West believe that there is no political alternative in Pakistan.

The Chairman ARD asked the regime that is Pakistan a personal fiefdom of a dictator or it is a country envisioned by Quaid-e-Azam for which Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto sacrificed his life? He said that the Pakistan Peoples Party under the leadership of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto is striving for a just society where every political party would have level playing field.

Makhdoom Amin Fahim urged the civil society and the Human Rights Organisations to raise their voice against this state oppression.

He also demanded a judicial inquiry into the incident and to bring to justice all those involved in the brutal murder of political activists in Rahimyar Khan.

Mohtarma Bhutto condemns lawlessness by Islamabad seminary incidents

Demands arrest and prosecution of law breakers


Islamabad March 30, 2007: Former Prime Minister and Chairperson PPP has condemned the incident on Wednesday when the female students of Islamabad seminary took law into their own hands as the police and law enforcing agencies turned a blind eye to it.

In a statement today she said that the images of burqa-clad and stick wielding women holding policemen hostage, forcing shopkeepers to shut their business and kidnapping a family of three women accusing them of loose morals had done incalculable damage to the image of the country in the comity of nations.

She said that the Wednesday incident had given rise to suspicions that under the present regime of the PML (Q) and its allies the country was moving towards Talibanization to seek international community’s support to the military regime.

She noted that the incident occurred within days of the letter sent by four US Congressmen asking General Musharraf to hold free and fair elections in which all political parties and leaders were allowed to participate in a level playing field. Many observers have expressed apprehension that the regime encourages talban activities and then flaunts increasing talibanization before the international community to seek its support for the military dictatorship.

“This is dangerous brinkmanship which will gravely undermine national security and integrity”.

Mohtarma Bhutto said that three dimensions of the incident need to be particularly investigated. One, who is behind the prayer leaders and students of a mosque belonging to the government to take law into their hands with impunity? Two, why no action was taken agasint the seminary when it illegally occupied a government library meant for the children? Three, why no arrests have been made and no action taken so far agasint those who kidnapped police personnel and also three women.

Mohtarma Bhutto recalled that during her government the father of the present prayer leader of Lal Masjid late Maulana Abdullah was set right merely by transferring him to a mosque in another sector of the federal capital.

She demanded arrest and prosecution of those involved in the incident.

“The duality of the regime is exposed by the fact that female political workers are slapped publicly, shoved into police vans and driven to jails without women police escort but seminary students are patronized even as they kidnap women, hold policemen to ransom and move around in the market threatening shopkeepers to close their businesses”.

Many observers have noted the strange coincidence between international events and domestic actions which gives the impression, rightly or wrongly, of collaboration. For example shortly after visit of the US vice president Dick Cheney, a leading Taliban figure called Akhund was produced as captured. Now with the letter by four US senators and an imminent visit by a four member US congressional team the two incidents of Tank and Islamabad seminary took place attempting to create a perception that due to the terrorist/Taliban threat the democratisation of Pakistan should be postponed. In fact under the PPP democracy there was no threat of terrorism or Talibanisation of Pakistani society and the country was addressing the root issues of poverty, unemployment, drinking water and basic needs of the people who were advancing forward.

Mohtarma Bhutto condemns lawlessness in Tank

Calls for urgent measures to contain spread of extremism


Islamabad March 30, 2007: Former Prime Minister and Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto has condemned the lawlessness and mayhem in Tank in Frontier province as the worst example of the erosion of the writ of the state.

The Principal of a private school and his brother were kidnapped and killed by militants for refusing on Monday the forcible recruitment of school children in the jehadi outfits run by militants. The next day on Tuesday militants attacked the city of Tank with mortars and rockets ransacking government buildings and public and private property.

In a statement today Mohtarma Bhutto said that the Tank incident had shown that the regime had miserably failed in establishing the writ of the state in the country and had lost all political and moral right to stay in power.

She said that when the peace treaty was signed with the militants in Waziristan on the terms of the extremists many had expressed apprehensions that it amounted to capitulation before militants and an abdication of state responsibility. “The apprehensions expressed then have finally come true as is evident from the fact the militants have spread to the adjoining district of tank”.

She also expressed profound grief and shock over the murder of the School Principal and his brother. She said that the Principal had laid down his life fighting extremism and to protect his students from forcible conversion to the creed of extremists and fanatics.

She called for recognition of the late Principal with a high civil award and compensation to his bereaved family.

She called for a restoration of true democracy through fair elections open to all parties and personalities free of politically motivated litigation to take Pakistan back to representative and accountable government noting that the crisis of lawlessness started with the dismissal of the PPP government and can only end with its restoration.

Islamabad seminary incident deliberate ploy of the regime


Islamabad March 29, 2007: Former Interior Minister and PPP central leader Major General (R) Naseerullah Babar has issued the following statement today,

“The manner in which the regime buckled under the pressure and allowed the female students of the Lal Masjid seminary in Islamabad to take law into their own hands is most shocking and is condemned.

“It is unbelievable that the administration negotiated with the religious hard-liners swap of the police personnel held hostage by the seminary students but abandoned to their fate the three women and a child wrongfully confined by the seminary students.

“The Lal Masjid is Auqaf property and its prayer leader is a paid employee of the government. It is incomprehensible that a paid employee of the government should take the law into his own hands and the regime looks the other way.

“The regime is seeking to create the impression that Talibanisation has spread to Islamabad with a view to deceiving the international community into believing that the choice in Pakistan is between military dictatorship and religious fanatics.

“On the one hand the regime warns the Baloch nationalists to stop demanding their rights otherwise they would not know what hit them from where and has killed nationalist leaders.

“On the other hand the female seminary students are allowed to illegally occupy the library, make rounds of the nearby markets threatening video and music shop owners to close their business, hold hostage police personnel and even kidnap women accusing them for not leading a virtuous life.

“It is not surprising that the drama was enacted within days of an open letter addressed by four American Congressmen asking General Musharraf to hold fair and free elections and allow all political parties and leaders to participate in it in a level playing field.

“This double speak and deliberately creating the misperception that talibanisation has spread to the federal capital so as to lift pressure for holding free and fair elections will only do incalculable harm to the country”

Mohtarma Bhutto condemns kidnapping of Hindu children in Sindh

Demands immediate recovery from kidnappers


Islamabad March 28, 2007: Former Prime Minister and Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto has condemned the kidnapping of three children belonging to the Hindu community in Sindh and demanded their immediate recovery and punishment to the kidnappers.

Three children Oam Parkash (6) in Jacobabad and Pun Kumar (14) and Tun Shaw (4) in Kashmore were kidnapped by outlaws during the past week. Tun Shaw was released but the other two children are still in the custody of kidnappers and the police have not yet been able to recover them.

In a statement today former Prime Minister and Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto said that the continued incidents of kidnapping and harassment of Hindus and other minorities in the country particularly in Sindh had sent very wrong signals about Pakistan to the international community.

“The regime must put its act together with respect to law and order and particularly with regard to the treatment meted out to the minorities”

Meanwhile on the directions of Mohtarma Bhutto the PPP MNA Ramesh Lal visited the aggrieved families to commensurate with them. She also asked the Party leadership and MNA Ramesh Lal to pursue the case with the local administration and ensure that the children were released from captivity.

She said that the basic responsibility of the regime was the maintenance of law and order and if the regime failed to provide it to the citizens it had no business to stay in power.

Mohtarma Bhutto also asked members of civil society and human rights bodies to raise their voice against growing lawlessness in the country.

The PPP Chairperson expressed sympathies with the aggrieved families of the kidnapped children and said that the Party would do everything to ensure that the children were recovered soon and safely and that the perpetrators of the crime were punished under the law.

Mohtarma Bhutto condemns victimization of Ashraf Sohna MPA

Demands his immediate release


Islamabad March 28, 2007: Former Prime Minister and Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto has condemned the victimization of PPP MPA from Okara Ashraf Sohna and demanded his immediate release from unlawful confinement.

Ashraf Sohna was first arrested three weeks ago on fake charges of terrorism. Even when he was granted bail the regime did not allow him to come out of jail. Finally when Ashraf Sohan came out of jail under court order he was re-arrested on the gate under another false charge. The PPP MPA is in jail without court orders only because he is very vocal against dictatorial polices of the military regime.

In a statement today Chairperson Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto said that the repeated arrests of Ashraf Sohna on false and fictitious charges was stifling the voice of the opposition and a blatant attempt to impose a one Party rule in the country.

She asked the regime not to push the opposition parties with their backs to the wall warning that such repressive politics would endanger the unity and integrity of the federation and must be avoided.

“Political activists have been subjected to worst kind of oppression and repression in violation of their human rights and any further persecution for satisfying the ego of some one can result in a serious backlash”.

The Party demands a judicial inquiry into the way Ashraf Sohna has been maltreated and his human rights violated, she said.

The Party also urges the human rights bodies to raise their voice against attempts to impose one Party rule in the country, she said.

PPP says government responsible for missing persons


Islamabad March 28, 2007: Pakistan Peoples Party has rejected the contention of the regime that it was not involved in the mysterious disappearances of citizens.

Addressing public meeting in Rawalpindi on Tuesday General Musharraf distance tried to absolve the government of any responsibility saying that those disappeared had been commandeered by jehadi outfits for waging jehad in different parts of the world. He also claimed to welcome the judiciary taking note of the issue of disappeared persons.

“It is unacceptable that a regime that is obsessed to establish its writ against nationalist elements in smaller provinces should abandon its responsibility to trace citizens allegedly kidnapped by jehadi outfits”, said spokesperson of the Party former Senator Farhatullah Babar in a statement today.

General Musharraf has been telling to the world that he has banned the jehadi outfits but to the families of the disappeared he says that he cannot recover their near and dear ones because they had joined hands with these very jehadis, he said.

“It is this double speak that strengthens the suspicion that Musharraf has been running with the hare and hunting with the hound in the war on terror”.

Former Senator Farhatullah Babar said that hundreds of nationalist elements have also disappeared in the provinces of Sindh and Balochistan, and asked, whether they too had joined the jehadi groups.

He said that the state agencies had run amok because there were operating neither under the ambit of law nor under the control of civil and parliamentary authority.

He said that when the government took the position before the courts that it had no control over the operations of agencies it was an admission that they were a state within state, he said.

He said that if General Musharraf was sincere in welcoming the courts to take up the issue he should not interfere with the Supreme Court in taking up the 1996 case involving the use of public money by the ISI to illegally interfere in national politics. The case if allowed to proceed can result in judicial review of the legal and constitutional framework of the working of the state’s agencies, he said.

Under the international law enforced disappearances of citizens is a crime against humanity and individuals involved in it could also be tried at any time in the future, he said, and warned the perpetrators that they can be held accountable for kidnappings anytime in the future.

Mohtarma Bhutto condemns large scale arrest of Political activists

Demands their release, urges judiciary to take suo moto notice

Islamabad March 26, 2007: Former Prime Minster and Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto has condemned the arrest of PPP and ARD workers in the country in connection with the protest demonstrations against the assault on the independence of judiciary.

Scores of Party activists were arrested in Rawalpindi, Multan, Lahore, Khanewal, Sahiwal and other cities ahead of the ARD call to hold protest demonstrations at divisional level against the sacking of the Chief Justice and in solidarity with the bar.

Those arrested in different parts of the country include Fakhar Imam in Multan, Mukhtar Awan, Salahuddin Dogar, Ahmad Hasan Daher, Khawaj Rizwan, Sajida Mir in Lahore, Khalid Bobi, Sardar Shaukat Hayat, Iqbal Razaq Butt, Malik Mazhar Husain and Qazi Sultan Mahmood in Rawalpindi besides scores of activists.

The activists were whisked away by security agencies and detained at undisclosed locations.

In a statement today Mohtarma Bhutto said that staging of peaceful demonstrations against the sacking of Chef Justice was a democratic right and the arrest of workers ahead of exercising their democratic right was condemnable. She called for the immediate release of all those arrested.

It may be noted that the ARD has given a call for protect demonstrations on Monday March 26.

Earlier also the police in Gujranwala arrested and instituted criminal cases against a number of Party activists on the eve of General Musharraf’s visit. The Party activists including members of the Peoples Lawyers Forum were demanding release of the non-functional Chief Justice from house arrest.

The largest number of arrests of any political party, following the removal of the Chief Justice has been of PPP workers who are in the forefront of the defence of the judiciary and the rule of law.

Mohtarma Bhutto urged the judiciary to take suo moto notice and order release of those arrested in violation of their human rights and their right to peaceful assembly and peaceful protest.

Mohtarma Bhutto also saluted the courage of the workers and said that the cowardly strong arm tactics of the regime will not cow down the Party workers. “Your courage and sacrifice offers great hope to the civil society in their struggle for upholding the independence of judiciary in the country”.

Restore the judiciary and end militaristic tyranny in

Pakistan A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission

 

The legal community of Pakistan has rejected a government offer for talks, while demanding the withdrawal of the reference against Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and the formation of a national government to hold general elections within three months time. The convention of lawyers, which was meeting in Peshawer, the capital city of North Western Frontier Province, has also asked President Gen Pervez Musharraf to step down and demanded that he be tried for treason under Article 6 of the Constitution. The legal conference also appealed to all political parties to end their assemblies and join the lawyers struggle to removal the government. They have also demanded the immediate release of all missing people who have been abducted by all military and intelligence agencies, while lodging formal criminal cases against those responsible for the abductions.

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) fully supports the demands of the legal community and urges all civil and political organizations in the country to engage in this social movement against the militaristic tyranny that has destroyed total credibility of every institution in the country. After seven and half years of military rule in Pakistan, the people must take back control of their own judicial system and not allow the authoritarian government to through justice out the window. The government and its ministers must also cease the harsh action of using the police to publicly beat any lawyer or journalist who questions the regimes intentions.

Journalists are being beaten by police on a regular basis. One television station was ransacked by the police force even in the presence of the Minister for Information who could not stop the attack. The police treated the minister as if he was a person of no value. More than one dozen journalists were beaten by police and several lost their camera. About 35 journalists were also arrested during and after the protests that involved lawyers, activists, civil society groups, as well as political parties. Even the President of Pakistan has had to apologise to the Geo Television network that was attacked by the police in the capital Islamabad.

One television program was stopped by the Pakistani regulatory authority (PEMRA) for discussing the removal of the chief justice. At he same time, this television program reproduced filthy language of the federal law minister against the family of an editor of a prominent English newspaper during a live discussion on Voice of America (VOA). The newspaper had written a story about the crises after the removal of the chief justice with a headline saying "A big arm in the law minister". The federal minister openly said in an assertive way on the VOA program that he will put his long arm in the family of the person who says that "a long arm in law minister." This demonstrates the ministers promise to silence the media. On March 9, when the president dressed in Army uniform and removed the chief justice, the Law Minister justified the removal and said it was very constitutional; however, on March 16 he took a 360 degree turn and announced that the chief justice was sent on forced leave by the president of Pakistan. The question of whether or not the chief justice’s role is still functional has remained unanswered.

The president of Pakistan sees the conspiracy behind the judiciary assertion, as conspiracy against his government. Not having any concern over the use of brutal force against the legal community, President General Musharraf is only concerned of why his actions against the judiciary have been criticised by the lawyers. He supposes that what ever his actions are, are in the greater interests and no one should criticise this because as being the Chief of Army Staff, he is the protector of the country and the protector must be obeyed in any situation.

Meanwhile, when the government in Pakistan begun realising that it was losing its total control over its citizenry, it started pressurizing the Supreme Judicial Council to delay the proceedings against the chief justice so that the legal community will exhaust themselves and their struggle for the restoration of the rule of law will subside. The government has also not allowed the chief justice to address the Lawyers' Convention which is being held in different areas throughout the country. While speaking from the Supreme Court on 22 March 2007, a government spokesman threatened Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry with a statement, saying not to 'politicize' the reference against him by addressing different bar associations in the country. The spokesman, named Arif Chaudhry said, "It would be in his own interest that such a sensitive issue is not politicized".

The Asian Human Rights Commission also commends the courageous action of more than a dozen judges and government law officers for their resignations and their refusal to work with the government of General Musharraf.

In light of the mishandling of this judicial crisis, the government's continued use of brutal force against lawyers, journalists, politicians and human rights activists, there now a moral obligation for the administration to step aside and give power back to the people of Pakistan. Therefore AHRC urges General Musharraf Government to step down and hand over power to the Chairman of the Senate to conduct free and fair elections within 90 days from taking power.

India and Pakistan need peace Benazir Bhutto.


NEW DELHI, March 24: Former Pakistani Prime Minister Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, addressing a gathering in India, called Saturday for peace between her country and India.

Bhutto was the keynote speaker at the India Today Conclave in New Delhi, the Press Trust of India reported.

"On the 60th year of independence of both the countries, I propose that we put end to the destructive chapter of the lives of the two countries," she said. Bhutto said India and Pakistan should have the same kind of relationship India has with China, where the two countries have frequent disputes without going to war.

This week, Bhutto and another exiled former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, agreed to a political alliance. During a meeting in London, the two talked about plans to oust President Pervez Musharraf, The Telegraph reported.

Bhutto heads the Pakistan Peoples' Party and Sharif the Pakistan Muslim League. They are expected to hold a joint demonstration Monday against Musharraf's suspension of the chief justice.

"This has become a very explosive situation for Musharraf," said Wajid Shams-ul-Hasan, a former high commissioner for Pakistan. "He should go and the army should go back to barracks."

Mohtarma Bhutto leaves for New Delhi for talk on India-Pakistan relations


Islamabad March 23, 2007: Former Prime Minister and Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto left London on Friday for New Delhi to participate in a Conclave by ‘India Today’ on Indo Pakistan relations and peace in the region.

Mohtarma Bhutto will speak on “Challenges for the Brave New World: Can Indo Pak Relations Be Reinvented”. Former Iranian President Mr. Khatami has also been invited to the Conclave.

During her brief stay in London Mohtarma Bhutto met former Prime Minister and PML-N Chief Mian Nawaz Sharif and also participated in a BCC program ‘Question Time’.

After delivering her speech at the Conclave Mohtarma Bhutto will leave for Washington.

She will return to Dubai early next month for participation in a function on the eve of barsi of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on April 4.

Mohtarma Bhutto’s message on Pakistan Day
PAKISTAN ZINDA ABAD


ISLAMABAD, March 22, 2007: Former Prime Minister and Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto has given the following message on the eve of Pakistan Day on March 23, 2007.

“Today is an auspicious day. Sixty seven years ago, on this day, the Muslims of the subcontinent through a formal resolution expressed their firm resolve to achieve a separate homeland for themselves wherein they could fashion their lives in accordance with their own values, culture, mores and traditions. With the blessings of Allah and through an unprecedented struggle the Muslims of the subcontinent achieved their lofty objectives with a short span of seven years. On this auspicious occasion I wish to greet the entire Pakistani nation.

“While celebrating this day we must also pause and reflect where we stand today. How far we have upheld the lofty ideals for which it was resolved on March 23, 1940 to achieve this great homeland of ours?

“When our founding fathers resolved to carve out an independent state, they had in mind a state where constitutionalism and rule of law reigned supreme. It is a sad thought that the regime has continuously trampled rule of law and Constitutionalism for the past eight years, the latest manifestation of which is the sacking of the Chief Justice Supreme Court just a few days ago.

“On this day let us all resolve that we shall endeavour to uphold the rule of law and Constitution by demanding that the Chief Justice be reinstated. Let us resolve to support the bar in its struggle till the Chief Justice is reinstated.

“Let us on this day also resolve to fight the tendency to have one set of laws for one person and one institution and another set of laws for the people. For unless there is rule of law and everyone is equal before law, the future of our great country will be exposed to internal and external threats.”

Bhutto and Sharif plan return from exile in a pact to topple Musharraf
By Tim Shipman and Massoud Ansari

Two exiled former prime ministers of Pakistan will launch a joint attempt this week to drive the current president, Pervez Musharraf, from power.


Former prime ministers of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, pictured in 1999, plan to return from exile to topple Musharraf. Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif agreed to join forces during a meeting in London after weeks of political crisis in Pakistan have left its military strongman with a tenuous grip on power.

Thousands of their supporters are expected to take to the streets tomorrow in co-ordinated demonstrations, culminating in a rally in the capital, Islamabad.

Miss Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples' Party and Mr Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League will protest against Gen Musharraf's decision to sack the country's chief justice, who had opposed his attempts to cling to power. But last night a close ally of Miss Bhutto, who has twice been prime minister, made clear that the removal of Gen Musharraf, who is also army chief of staff, is the -ultimate goal.

Wajid Shams-ul-Hasan, the former Pakistani high commissioner in Britain, said: "The seriousness of the crisis in Pakistan means that we have formulated a joint strategy to neutralise Gen Musharraf and to ensure that the next elections are free and fair. This has become a very explosive situation for Musharraf. He should go and the army should go back to barracks."

A spokesman for Mr Sharif said: "We want his resignation and then free and fair elections without Musharraf. With him sitting there, you cannot get free elections."

The current crisis arose because Gen Musharraf wants Pakistan's National Assembly to rubber stamp his rule for another five years before it is dissolved for elections, due later this year.

The chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry, had said the plans were unconstitutional and pressed for Gen Musharraf to surrender his army post as well. Gen Musharraf -suspended him on March 9 claiming the judge had abused his position, provoking the worst crisis since he overthrew Mr Sharif and seized power in a military coup in 1999.

The pact between Mr Sharif and Miss Bhutto is significant since, until now, the public protests over the crisis have been led by lawyers rather than politicians.

Half a dozen judges, including a high court judge and deputy attorney general, have tendered their resignations and a further 16 are expected to stand down in protest.

On Friday, lawyers again took to the streets brandishing banners reading: "It is death for Musharraf".

If they return to Pakistan, Miss Bhutto and Mr Sharif face arrest on corruption charges, which they each claim are politically motivated. They are still the de facto leaders of their political parties.

After two hours of talks last week, Mr Sharif said: "We have jointly decided to struggle against this military dictatorship and do everything within our means to stop the brutalities Musharraf is committing against institutions in Pakistan."

He met Miss Bhutto after rumours that she had been in talks with Gen Musharraf. Mr Hasan, Miss Bhutto's ally, accused Gen Musharraf's supporters of spreading the rumours to divide the opposition. "There are no differences between us," he said.

Mr Hasan confirmed that Miss Bhutto was prepared to risk imprisonment to return to Pakistan and run for election, either to the National Assembly or to the Senate. "The time has come for her to go back," he said. "Musharraf may dare to arrest her but we are confident that she will be cleared by the judiciary. Musharraf has no moral authority."

The next flashpoint for Gen Musharraf will come when the supreme judicial council considers the fate of the chief justice.

Imran Khan, the former Pakistan cricketer, who now leads his own Movement For Justice party, said that Gen Musharraf was in a lose-lose situation. "If he gets the decision against Mr Chaudhry, nobody is going to accept it and these protests will increase tenfold. If Mr Chaudhry is reinstated as a chief justice, we now can see that Musharraf won't be able to continue as a president and army chief of staff at the same time." He added: "Once he is out as chief of staff, he will become irrelevant."

Legal experts say that revulsion at the treatment of the chief justice has backfired on the president. Syyeda Abida Hussain, a former Pakistan ambassador in Washington, said: "The chief justice of Pakistan suddenly taking a stand against a military dictator has motivated all of us. It is really something from God." Another lawyer claimed: "It seems like a beginning of the end for Musharraf."

Gen Musharraf's position has been further imperilled by an apparent change of heart in the US, where diplomats and intelligence officials are disenchanted with the president's failure to combat fully fundamentalist Muslim terrorists operating in the tribal areas in the north-west of the country who have repeatedly crossed into Afghanistan to attack British and American forces.

A CIA report leaked to the New York Times a week ago revealed that the Bush administration would be content to see Gen Musharraf replaced by his army deputy, Ahsan Saleem Hyat, and the former banker Mohammedmian Soomro installed as president. It concluded that a takeover of Pakistan by extremists Islamic mullahs - the doomsday scenario long feared by Washington - was no longer the most likely outcome of his removal from power.

A British diplomatic source stressed that while Britain is happy to do business with Gen Musharraf as long as he continues counter-terrorist co-operation, the loyalty of the British government is to Pakistan's "institutions rather than individuals".

Miss Bhutto called on the international community to force Gen Musharraf's hand. "If democracy must be defended in Afghanistan, then democracy in Pakistan must be defended, too," she said. "It is important for the international community to stop turning a blind eye."

Musharraf at the Exit
By Ahmed Rashid


Thursday, March 22, 2007: LAHORE, Pakistan -- In the rapidly unfolding crisis in Pakistan, no matter what happens to President Pervez Musharraf -- whether he survives politically or not -- he is a lame duck. He is unable to rein in Talibanization in Pakistan or guide the country toward a more democratic future.

Since March 9, when Musharraf suspended the chief justice of the Supreme Court, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, public protests have escalated every day -- as has a violent crackdown by the police and intelligence agencies on the media and the nation's legal fraternity.

The legal convolutions about Chaudhry's dismissal boil down to one simple fact: He was not considered sufficiently reliable to deliver pleasing legal judgments in a year when Musharraf is seeking to extend his presidency by five more years, remain as army chief and hold what would undoubtedly be rigged general elections.

Musharraf's desire to replace Chaudhry with a more pliable judge has badly backfired. After just 10 days of protests, lawyers around the country have made it clear to the senior judiciary that they will not tolerate further legal validations for continued military rule or tolerate Musharraf remaining as president. At least seven judges and a deputy attorney general have resigned in protest.

Across the country, in law offices, in the media, among the opposition parties and other organized sections of civil society, the feeling is growing that Musharraf will have to quit sooner rather than later. After eight years of military rule it appears people have had enough.

Moreover, Musharraf is losing control of three key elements that have sustained his rule but are now either distancing themselves or turning on him completely. The first is the ruling Pakistan Muslim League Party, which has acted as the civilian appendage to the military but faces an election and knows that going to bat for the unpopular Musharraf will turn off voters. Party leaders and cabinet ministers are already distancing themselves from him.

The second element is the country's three intelligence agencies, which are at loggerheads over control of Musharraf, Pakistan's foreign policy, its political process and the media. Military Intelligence and the Inter-Services Intelligence are military agencies, while the largest civilian agency, the Intelligence Bureau, is now run by a military officer. Ironically, Inter-Services Intelligence, the most powerful agency in the country, has been the moderate element urging Musharraf to open up the political system to the opposition parties. The other two agencies are the hard-liners and are urging Musharraf to adopt even tougher measures.

The third loss for Musharraf has been the unqualified international support he has received since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Anger in the U.S. Congress and media, and particularly among members of the Republican Party, toward Musharraf's dual-track policy in Afghanistan -- helping to catch al-Qaeda members but backing the Taliban -- is making it difficult for President Bush to continue offering Musharraf his blanket support.

That was the tough-love message that Vice President Cheney delivered to Musharraf in Islamabad last month: Unless Musharraf goes after the

Taliban, the Bush administration can no longer protect him.

Any loss of Western support will be critical to the army, which is on an arms-buying spree and depends on annual U.S. military aid of about $300 million. Musharraf has balanced the pro- and anti-American factions in the army's officer corps, but if both sides see him as a lame duck, unable to deliver the goods or stabilize the country, their support will dwindle.

Musharraf is now too weak to pursue policies that could keep his back-stabbers in check, restore his credibility at home and abroad, and pursue his agenda of remaining in power for the next five years.

It is far better that he revert to the promise he made when he seized power in 1999: to return the country to democracy. His best course of action would be to say he is not a candidate for president, hold free and fair elections, allow the return of exiled politicians, restore full political rights and gracefully depart with his legacy, which is considerable, intact.

It is in the interest of the United States to support such an exit strategy. The military can no longer counter the phenomenal growth of Islamic extremism in Pakistan through offensives alone. What the country needs is greater political consensus and a popularly elected government, and to replace the extortions of the mullahs with the return of day-to-day parliamentary politics. The army created a political vacuum in which extremism has thrived. Pakistan needs a return to civil society and government.

Musharraf in "deep trouble", Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto
 

Washington, Mar 19 2007: Former Pakistan Prime Minister Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto has said that President General Pervez Musharraf is in "deep trouble". Mohtarma Benazir said the people of Pakistan were angry over the manner in which the regime had treated the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

She said General Musharraf should immediately reverse his decision, adding he has lost credibility with the people, who now are tired of his dictatorship.

She further said the Taliban was a threat to both Pakistan and Afghanistan, however, adding that the militia could not be fought with a dictatorship ruling the country, a system, which alienated the people.

"It is due to Gen. Musharrafs mistakes that terrorists are increasingly targeting Pakistan. A democratic government will be able to combat terrorism with the help of the people of Pakistan. Pakistan's return to democracy is the only way out," the Daily Times quoted Benazir as saying.

 Musharraf gropes for way out of Pakistan’s crisis


ISLAMABAD 19 March 2007:  President Pervez Musharraf, scotching rumours of a coup six months ago, told Pakistanis their country was not a “banana republic, where such things happen suddenly”. Filled with trepidation over a eepening political crisis, people could do with a similar reassurance now, but this time Musharraf’s crisis is real and appears self-induced.

A ham-fisted attempt to sack Pakistan’s top judge, and the use of excessive force to cow the media and counter protests has created the greatest challenge to Musharraf’s authority over Pakistan since he seized power in a coup seven-and-a-half years ago.

Things got so bad over the weekend that Musharraf said there was a conspiracy to turn people against him, and the United States, worried by instability in an allied country next door to Afghanistan and Iran, called for cool heads to prevail.

By Sunday, Islamabad’s rumour mill went into overdrive with talk that the constitution had been suspended, the National and provincial assemblies dissolved and martial law declared.

It was just rumour, but analysts say it could yet happen.

“Musharraf is capable of declaring martial law, and he’s capable of making a political retreat and calling it a victory,” said Najam Sethi, editor of the Daily Times newspaper.

Having been run by generals for more than half the 60 years since their country was carved out of India as a homeland for South Asia’s Muslims, Pakistanis are used to seeing leaders resort to desperate measures.

Vague allegations

The latest crisis began on March 9 with the suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary on vague allegations of misconduct, setting off protests by lawyers and opposition politicians.

Analysts suspect the motive for axing Chaudhary was fear that he would block any attempt by Musharraf to hold onto his role as army chief, which he is obliged to relinquish this year.

Television images of police thrashing lawyers in Lahore, and ransacking the offices of a news channel during a demonstration in Islamabad on Friday, stoked public outrage with Musharraf.

“Who is hatching this conspiracy, so that everything is put on me?” the beleaguered president complained the next day.

Musharraf would lose what public trust he still commands if he put the army on the streets, analysts said.

A better option would be to buy time and patch up with self-exiled former premier Benazir Bhutto, they say.

Whatever General Musharraf does his position is critically weakened in a year when he is due to seek re-election.

“It is a complete no-win situation for him,” said Sethi.

“The options for him are very clear—more democracy or greater repression.”

Bhutto alliance?
More democracy means relinquishing his role as army chief, and possibly forging alliances with progressive politicians, such as the self-exiled, two-time prime minister Bhutto.

Greater repression means ducking a commitment to hold free and fair national and provincial assembly elections due this year or early next. A senior official told journalists in an off-the-record briefing on Sunday the elections would take place.

Like Musharraf, Bhutto sees religious extremism as the greatest threat to Pakistan, but she will be in no hurry to ally herself with a president accused of flouting the constitution and belittling the office of chief justice.

“Musharraf is becoming a lame duck as far as the political process is concerned,” said Ahmed Rashid, an internationally respected Pakistani journalist.

“The system is paralyzed with him there.”
A sense of foreboding stems from a belief that Musharraf is being ill-advised by non-elected hardliners, including army officers, with scant regard for the country’s institutions.

Even if the Supreme Judicial Council hearing accusations against Chaudhary were to recommend his reinstatement, it is hard to see how Musharraf could work with a chief justice who has been lionized for defying him.

Civilian politicians in the ruling coalition have distanced themselves from the controversy, and any judge who supports Chaudhary’s removal now risks being regarded as a stooge.

Strain within Pakistan’s hybrid military-civilian establishment is showing, as anger turns inwards over the handling of the crisis.

“Some heads may roll,” the senior official said.

PPP to attend meetings called by ARD

Will continue struggle for judicial reforms


Islamabad March 19, 2007: PPP is a member of ARD and would attend all meetings called by the ARD in connection with the judicial crisis as well as play its role in defending the independence of the Judiciary.

A spokesperson of the Party said this today commenting on press reports that PPP had not attended a meeting of an APC.

He said that the PPP wished to make a distinction between those in government and those not as well as those who are moderates.

“The PPP would be attending meetings from platform of ARD and PPP to keep the moderates option alive in the country”.

PPP would continue working with PML N through the platform of ARD, he said.

The spokesperson said that the Party lawyers wing had given unprecedented sacrifices in the present struggle. The pro PPP president of Islamabad Bar Association was injured and in a critical state in hospital whereas pro PPP lawyers including Senator Khosa who had been the first to suffer head injuries.

The PPP Chairperson was proud of the heroic struggle by the PLF and the PPP in the movement to protect the independence of the judiciary by reinstating the Chief Justice of Pakistan, he said.

He said that the PPP was a national Party with strength through the length and breadth of Pakistan. PPP, in coordination with Bar Associations and other democratic forces, has provided mass support to the lawyers movement. As the political protests in Islamabad showed on March 16, the largest political contribution was by the PPP that crossed all barricades to reach the Supreme Court.

The PPP will continue to play its role in the movement for judicial freedom, he said.

Mohtarma Bhutto felicitates Zoarastarians on Nauroz


Islamabad March 20, 2007: Former Prime Minister and Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto has felicitated all those celebrating Nauroz on the festive occasion that falls on Wednesday March 21.

Nauroz, marking the advent of spring, is celebrated with fervour in Pakistan by Zoarastarians as well as those of Iranian and Afghan descent.

In a message of felicitations she urged the people that while celebrating Nauroz they should also remember their less fortunate brethren and share with others the joys and festivities.

A true joy is the one that is also shared with all, she said.

She also prayed that the jovial spirit of Nauroz may last for the whole year.

Uncle Sam Says Cool It

B. Raman


After having initially commented on the suspension of the Chief Justice of the Pakistan Supreme Court, the US has decided not to voice any more criticism of Musharraf, but to reiterate its backing to him. For now.
 

According to reliable sources close Pakistan People's Party of Benazir Bhutto, the US is concerned that serious political instability in Pakistan at this stage might play into the hands of the Neo Taliban at a time when it is threatening to step up its attacks against the NATO forces in Afghanistan.

That is why, after having initially commented on the suspension of the Chief Justice of the Pakistan Supreme Court, the US has decided not to voice any more criticism of Musharraf, but to reiterate its backing to him.

It has also requested Benazir and Nawaz Sharif, the leader of the Pakistan Muslim League, not to add to the difficulties of Musharraf. It has reportedly promised to influence Musharraf to allow them contest the elections later this year and facilitate their re-entry into the political mainstream.

In the light of the US request, Benazir and Nawaz have advised their cadres to keep away from the street protests against Musharraf. Apart from calling for the reinstatement of the Chief Justice, Benazir has refrained from any rhetoric, which might tend to aggravate the street protests.

Presently, the protests are confined to the lawyers, some members of the Jamaat-e-Islami and some former members of the army and the Inter-Services Intelligence, who are anti-Musharraf. Involvement of non-fundamentalist political parties is very small. Musharraf is considerably embarrassed, but not yet significantly weakened. The US is also advising him to cool the crisis over the Chief Justice issue. If no major demonstration takes place on March 21, 2007, when the case comes up for hearing once more before the Supreme Judicial Council, Musharraf's troubles may decrease.

Pakistan is crucial to the world’s stability
BY DENIS MACSHANE


March 19, 2007: ANYONE who wants political power in Pakistan, so say the street pundits, must hold three aces — America, the army and Allah. As Pakistan plans its 60th birthday celebrations this year, it may hope for a future less in thrall to its military, to its mullahs and to Washington. President Pervez Musharraf, who took power in a bloody 1999 coup, is facing a crisis.


Far from being Nato’s calm eastern ally, a new front in the fight against terrorism, Islamabad’s streets feel shaky, divided and waiting for the worst. Pakistan is neither dictatorship nor democracy. Its newspapers are louder in criticism of their President than the anti-Blair or anti-Bush press in the West. Its intellectuals roam the world, trashing their country. Opposition politician, Cambridge-educated billionaire, Benazir Bhutto, is free to return home when she wants. But General Musharraf and his army are in charge.

The house arrest of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, after he refused Musharraf’s demand to resign, has caused outrage. In a nation that reveres high office, the manhandling of the judge shocked even the most cynical of Pakistani politicians.

Pakistan urgently needs a return to democratic civilian rule even if its elected leaders in the Nineties became bywords for corruption, encouraging the Taleban and the madrassas, as well as the long- bearded, turban-wearing politicians who insist the law should be subordinate to theocracy. Democracy requires compromise between the military and the politicians. Instead there may be a slow drift towards increased authoritarianism under Musharraf, further alienating Pakistan.

In fact, the most poignant story in Pakistan last week was not about the Chief Justice but the stoning to death of a woman and two men accused of adultery. The rise of religious intolerance is now a political danger from the Christian West to the Muslim East. Yet it is all too easy to patronise Pakistan. Many are currently gushing over India with its clever graduates and Midas-touch businessmen.

But India’s record on human rights and the illiteracy of half its population is little better than Pakistan’s. India is rightly seen as a strategic partner for the West, especially the US, which is playing a balance-of-power game using India against China. But Pakistan, not India, is key to stability in the new world order.

The chain reaction that began when the West and Saudi Arabia called into being the jihadi movement to oust the Russians from Afghanistan is coming back to haunt Pakistan. In the Eighties it allowed itself to be the base for military attacks on Russia, even as the USSR tottered on the edge of history’s dustbin.

Now the jihadis are heading steadily eastwards as fanatical Islamism preaches hate and justifies suicide bombings. But Afghanistan could be saved if a political-economic-social campaign can gain ground from a purely military definition of the challenges. Earlier this month US soldiers ran amok after a bomb attack. They fired indiscriminately, killing 30 people. A few more Bloody Sundays like this and Pakistan’s neighbour will be Iraqified before reconstruction pays off.

Britain is sending one of its toughest trouble-shooting diplomats to take over a beefed-up presence in Kabul. The UN agencies, the European Commission plus the European Council, plus dozens of NGOs constitute the huge effort being made in Afghanistan, yet without better co-ordination it may end up chasing its tail.

The news is good in terms of schools, roads and hospitals built. Kabul looks richer than when it was a hippy-trail stopover three decades ago. But relentlessly the Taleban and the jihadis from among the three million Afghan refugees in Pakistan are back in business. Pakistan is endlessly reproached about not doing enough. It is told to close its frontier, as if the US can close the Mexican border or 30,000 British soldiers could seal the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland across which IRA killers roamed. Pakistan is pressured to hunt Bin Laden, but Nato can’t find Radovan Karadzic or persuade the Serbian army to stop protecting Ratko Mladic.

The time is overdue to acknowledge the sacrifices Pakistan has made. It has 80,000 soldiers along the 2,300km frontier with Afghanistan; 700 have been killed, far in excess of Nato casualties in Afghanistan or Britain’s in Iraq. India could join the war against terror by removing its 700,000 soldiers from Kashmir and opening the border. Musharraf has been braver than his predecessors in acknowledging that Indian-controlled Kashmir is not going to return to Pakistan.

If Pakistan felt its eastern flank was secure, it could transfer its military to the west — Afghanistan. Britain in recent years has given GBP1bn in aid to India, while India spends GBP200m on aid to Afghanistan. UK aid is, in effect, subsidising India’s efforts to pull Afghanistan into its orbit. India is opening consulates in parts of Afghanistan where no Indian has been seen in years. From Pakistan’s perspective, this looks like India seeking influence in order to keep up pressure on its old foe.

This summer heroin will be cheaper on the streets of Pakistan than sweets. India and China have a bigger drugs problem than the UK. Both countries should cut Islamabad some slack. If Afghanistan goes wrong, the next target for the ideologues who unleash suicide bombers will be Pakistan with its nuclear arsenal. Pakistan is the key to defeating the new threats to the world.

Time and again, the West has turned its back on Pakistan. That mistake should not be made again. Britain, with its close links to Pakistan, its able, articulate Muslim MPs, and its duty to tell America to change tactics, should help before it is too late.

Denis MacShane is British Labour Member of Parliament for Rotherham and was a minister at the Foreign Office until 2005

Restore the judiciary and end militaristic tyranny in Pakistan

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission


The legal community of Pakistan has rejected a government offer for talks, while demanding the withdrawal of the reference against Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and the formation of a national government to hold general elections within three months time. The convention of lawyers, which was meeting in Peshawer, the capital city of North Western Frontier Province, has also asked President Gen Pervez Musharraf to step down and demanded that he be tried for treason under Article 6 of the Constitution. The legal conference also appealed to all political parties to end their assemblies and join the lawyers struggle to removal the government. They have also demanded the immediate release of all missing people who have been abducted by all military and intelligence agencies, while lodging formal criminal cases against those responsible for the abductions.

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) fully supports the demands of the legal community and urges all civil and political organizations in the country to engage in this social movement against the militaristic tyranny that has destroyed total credibility of every institution in the country. After seven and half years of military rule in Pakistan, the people must take back control of their own judicial system and not allow the authoritarian government to through justice out the window. The government and its ministers must also cease the harsh action of using the police to publicly beat any lawyer or journalist who questions the regimes intentions.

Journalists are being beaten by police on a regular basis. One television station was ransacked by the police force even in the presence of the Minister for Information who could not stop the attack. The police treated the minister as if he was a person of no value. More than one dozen journalists were beaten by police and several lost their camera. About 35 journalists were also arrested during and after the protests that involved lawyers, activists, civil society groups, as well as political parties. Even the President of Pakistan has had to apologise to the Geo Television network that was attacked by the police in the capital Islamabad.

One television program was stopped by the Pakistani regulatory authority (PEMRA) for discussing the removal of the chief justice. At he same time, this television program reproduced filthy language of the federal law minister against the family of an editor of a prominent English newspaper during a live discussion on Voice of America (VOA). The newspaper had written a story about the crises after the removal of the chief justice with a headline saying "A big arm in the law minister". The federal minister openly said in an assertive way on the VOA program that he will put his long arm in the family of the person who says that "a long arm in law minister." This demonstrates the ministers promise to silence the media. On March 9, when the president dressed in Army uniform and removed the chief justice, the Law Minister justified the removal and said it was very constitutional; however, on March 16 he took a 360 degree turn and announced that the chief justice was sent on forced leave by the president of Pakistan. The question of whether or not the chief justice’s role is still functional has remained unanswered.

The president of Pakistan sees the conspiracy behind the judiciary assertion, as conspiracy against his government. Not having any concern over the use of brutal force against the legal community, President General Musharraf is only concerned of why his actions against the judiciary have been criticised by the lawyers. He supposes that what ever his actions are, are in the greater interests and no one should criticise this because as being the Chief of Army Staff, he is the protector of the country and the protector must be obeyed in any situation.

Meanwhile, when the government in Pakistan begun realising that it was losing its total control over its citizenry, it started pressurizing the Supreme Judicial Council to delay the proceedings against the chief justice so that the legal community will exhaust themselves and their struggle for the restoration of the rule of law will subside. The government has also not allowed the chief justice to address the Lawyers' Convention which is being held in different areas throughout the country. While speaking from the Supreme Court on 22 March 2007, a government spokesman threatened Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry with a statement, saying not to 'politicize' the reference against him by addressing different bar associations in the country. The spokesman, named Arif Chaudhry said, "It would be in his own interest that such a sensitive issue is not politicized".

The Asian Human Rights Commission also commends the courageous action of more than a dozen judges and government law officers for their resignations and their refusal to work with the government of General Musharraf.

In light of the mishandling of this judicial crisis, the government's continued use of brutal force against lawyers, journalists, politicians and human rights activists, there now a moral obligation for the administration to step aside and give power back to the people of Pakistan. Therefore AHRC urges General Musharraf Government to step down and hand over power to the Chairman of the Senate to conduct free and fair elections within 90 days from taking power.

Bhutto says resignation of Judges an indication of judicial crisis


Islamabad March 19, 2007: Chairperson Pakistan Peoples Party and former Prime Minister Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto has said the resignation by six judges including one from the Lahore High Court is an indication of the deepening crisis the nation faces because of the military regime’s action against the Chief Justice of Pakistan.

In a statement, Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto said that the members of the bench could not be expected to be unaffected by the broad based sentiments of the lawyers community whose protests had paralysed the functioning of the courts for the last two weeks.

The inability of the courts to function was having a detrimental affect on the Nation’s standing within the world community as well as adversely affecting those in need of justice.

Mohtarma Bhutto called upon the military regime to take steps to immediately defuse the crisis by withdrawing the charges against the Chief Justice of Pakistan, reinstating the Chief Justice and then requesting the all the judges who had resigned to withdraw their resignations.

Former Prime Minister said that PPP was committed to the independence of the judiciary and had separated the judiciary from the executive during its tenure in office.

Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto assured the bar associations and lawyers’ community that the PPP would render the lawyers all political and moral support in their struggle to uphold the rule of law and independence of the judiciary.

It may be noted that PPP is the only govt in recent times, which has not attempted to weaken the judiciary by removing a chief justice.

Bhutto and Musharraf should think long and hard


March 19, 2007: The PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto said in New York yesterday that the Taliban must be defeated in Pakistan this year, otherwise the country risked falling under the sway of extremists as much as Afghanistan did before 9/11. Her next observation was equally telling: “The Taliban have actually established a mini-state in the tribal areas of Pakistan. My fear is that if these forces are not stopped in 2007, they are going to try to take on the state of Pakistan itself”.

Ms Bhutto could have taken the easy course of simply denouncing President General Pervez Musharraf to an American audience that is increasingly becoming keen to hear such words, but she did not. She focused instead on the real threat that General Musharraf has failed to confront adequately. She has thus indicated that she grasps the big picture and is not seduced by the foreshortened current perspective.

The PMLN and other opposition leaders have protested at Ms Bhutto’s refusal so far to fully join the opposition parties to exploit the widespread popular anger against the treatment meted out to the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Chaudhry, by General Musharraf. That would have been easy to do. But we should know that neither the MMA nor leaders like Imran Khan think that the Taliban are any threat to us. Equally, the PMLN is too joined at the hip with the religious groups and parties to realise the nature of the ungovernable hiatus in the event of a sudden and unplanned departure by General Musharraf. An upheaval led by the clergy at this point would not lead to peace and normality.

An all parties’ struggle for “restoration of democracy” could be recommended unequivocally if all the participants, especially the MMA, Imran Khan and the PMLN, were agreed on the precise situation obtaining in the country as well as on what they wish to do with his policies of peace with India, business with America, moderation in life, women’s emancipation, etc., after they have removed General Musharraf from the scene. Thus it is disquieting that the PMLN has not thought it necessary to discuss the post-agitation scene with the MMA in the light of the MMA’s manifesto. One reason could be the PMLN’s uncertain attitude towards the kind of order it would like to prevail. It may be recalled that before General Musharraf overthrew the PMLN government, Mr Nawaz Sharif seemed bent upon establishing shariah and becoming Amir ul Momineen, standing above the parliament and lording it over everyone and everything, including the judiciary.

The MMA now stands for restoring the constitution to the state before the MMA agreed with President Musharraf to pass the 17th amendment. It wants to revert to the separate electorate system and it wishes to abolish the special women’s seats in parliament. But, as is well known, joint electorates are in the manifesto of the PPP which also remains in favour of women’s special representation. Indeed, the PPP has defended the reform of the Hudood Laws in the country and would not like to undo them.

There are cogent reasons for the PPP to chart its course carefully and deliberately before deciding to become a part of any mass agitation against the current dispensation. Ms Bhutto should know that Pakistan will be impossible to rule if the politicians fail to agree that the country is under threat from extremism and that they must carefully examine the mistakes made by General Musharraf and try to rectify them instead of simply doing the opposite of what he has been doing. Note: the MMA says there is no extremism in Pakistan, there are no Taliban in Pakistan and that Taliban governance of the 1990s should be replicated in Pakistan.

The agitation now going on in Pakistan is led by lawyers across the political divide. That is why they are reluctant to allow the political parties to “usurp” their struggle to defend the institution of the supreme court exemplified in the unlikely candidate of Iftikhar Chaudhry. But, at the end of the day, their political affiliations are bound to surface and colour the direction of any mass movement. The problem is that all mass agitations give rise to radicalism, which is not very different from extremism. Would that suit the PPP?

Yet it is the PPP which has the largest vote bank in the country. It is also the party with a significant presence in Punjab and Sindh. With the PML in the hands of General Musharraf, and Maulana Fazlur Rehman ready to negotiate with the government at all times, no mass agitation will succeed in the real sense unless the PPP leads it or is a dynamic part of it. This much has been accepted as a fact also by Qazi Hussain Ahmad, the president of the MMA. But it then stands to reason that if all the opposition parties are agreed about the role and position of the PPP, then they should listen to the opinion of Ms Bhutto and not force her to join the agitation without regard to the kind of situation it might bring about.

On the other side, it is clear that after the recent fiasco, General Musharraf’s key PML ally is discredited and cannot hope to win the next general elections fairly. Nor can the judiciary be counted upon to stand with the PML and risk being tarred with the same brush. In other words, General Musharraf cannot blithely bend the constitution and civil society to his tune, rig the elections and expect to be both army chief and president for another five years. So he will have to either democratise and share power with the PPP or become more repressive. The current mid-way house of guided democracy without the mainstream PPP in tow and the MMA up in arms is coming to an end.

Under the circumstances, General Musharraf, no less than Ms Bhutto, would do well to think long and hard too about which way to go. He must not succumb to the hardliners and impose an emergency or martial law. She must not let the MMA hijack the protests.

Bhutto warns of Taliban threat to Pakistan


NEW YORK March 19, 2007: The Taliban must be defeated in Pakistan this year, otherwise the country risks falling under the sway of extremists as much as Afghanistan did before September 11, 2001, said former prime minister Benazir Bhutto on Friday.

Bhutto, who hopes to return from exile and run for prime minister again in elections this year, also warned that the judicial crisis in Pakistan could spin out of control, and underscored the importance of restoring civilian rule.

“They (the Taliban) have actually established a mini-state in the tribal areas of Pakistan. My fear is that if these forces are not stopped in 2007, they are going to try to take on the state of Pakistan itself,” Bhutto told Reuters in an interview. “In my view, it is a genuine threat,” she said.

Other commentators have warned of the dangers to Pakistan of a resurgent Taliban. Bhutto said the Taliban comeback was particularly dire because President Pervez Musharraf was unable to suppress elements of the Pakistani security forces that remained sympathetic to the Taliban. She said that Musharraf had also been exploiting the presence of the extreme Islamist movement as a rationale for maintaining his military rule beyond general elections due before the end of 2007.

“General Musharraf does say that he wants to go after terrorists, that he wants to go after the forces that support the Taliban, but he’s unable to do it,” Bhutto said from her apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, where she lives with her ailing husband when she’s not working for her return to Pakistani politics from Dubai.

“The people in the areas must see that it is in their benefit to kick out the extremist forces,” said Bhutto. To that end, she proposed a renewed commitment to health, education and infrastructure in the tribal areas. She said that in the absence of government welfare, Islamist religious schools had stepped in, winning over the poor population.

Bhutto (53) became the first female prime minister in the Muslim world when she was elected in 1988 at the age of 35. She was deposed in 1990, re-elected in 1993, and ousted again in 1996. Bhutto plans to return for the elections with her secular Pakistan Peoples Party, but there are questions about under which conditions. Through third parties, she is negotiating her return with Musharraf, who has passed a law banning her from seeking a third term. She also faces allegations of graft, which she says were fabricated. Her immediate concern was the crisis created by the suspension of the country’s Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary. “The judicial crisis highlights that if you don’t bring about a peaceful political transfer, events could get out of control because there is a lot of frustration. The judicial crisis has touched a raw nerve, which has shown how deep-seated the frustration within Pakistan is,” said Bhutto.

Musharraf Loses Credibility with America Also


Having played games over terrorism for several year