PAKISTAN: Demonstrations banned in Islamabad

The government of Pakistan essentially banned demonstrations in the capital of Islamabad in the latest sign that the ongoing protests in support of deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry are exerting a major political toll (thanks to Jaya for the pointer). President Pervez Musharraf, however, got a vote of support from some friends - the leaders of the military...

The military denounced a "malicious campaign" against the government "by vested interests and opportunists who were acting as obstructionist forces to serve their personal interests and agenda even at the cost of flouting the rule of law." It said Musharraf assured the military that nobody would be able to destabilize Pakistan. The two-month ban forces people to seek permission before organizing any political gathering of more than five people. The announcement came a day before Chaudhry planned to lead a procession from Islamabad to the city of Abbotabad. [AP]

In the West, of course, the tide has turned and editorial writers and others are generally pushing for the U.S. to change course. The New York Times recently wrote an editorial, "Propping up the General," saying the U.S. should encourage a return to democratic rule (eg., allowing opposition parties to contest elections), by leveraging the $2 billion a year in aid it provides.

That brought a nose-thumbing response from Pakistan's Ambassador to the UN, Munir Akram:

Most of the United States money reimburses the use of our military facilities and cost of operations in support of the United States-led counterterrorism war in Afghanistan. Surely, Pakistan can survive without this modest help. But can the United States win the war in Afghanistan and against terrorism without Pakistan’s military and political cooperation?

Akram also was shocked (!) that the Times would refer to Musharraf as a dictator, of all things...

Your repeated references to our president as a military dictator are offensive. President Pervez Musharraf was elected in accordance with Pakistan’s Constitution by our national and provincial parliaments. His re-election will be similarly democratic.

See our earlier coverage of the ongoing crisis since Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry was suspended.

Comments

[Jaya Kamlani]

“Pakistan's Musharraf tightens media regulations” June 4, 2007

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070604/wl_afp/pakistanjusticemedia_070604165312 (AFP) (full story)

ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf handed the country's television and radio watchdog greater powers Monday amid protests against the alleged blocking of three news channels. Media organisations say the move is the latest attempt by the government to dampen popular support for Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry after his suspension by military ruler Musharraf on March 9. Musharraf issued a decree that allows the independent Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) to make new regulations by itself, according to a copy seen by AFP. It also enables the authority to seize broadcast or distribution equipment or to seal premises that are operating "illegally."…. Condemning the decree, hundreds of journalists staged a procession outside the prime minister's office and chanted slogans against restrictions on private channels.

"Our struggle for independent media and independent judiciary will continue," Afzal Butt, president of the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Union of Journalists, said.

"This is a black law, we reject it," he said adding that it would "tarnish" Pakistan's image abroad.

Private television stations Geo, ARY-ONE and Aaj accused the authorities Monday of blocking their transmissions in the past three days because of their coverage of the political crisis. Earlier around 200 lawyers and journalists rallied outside PEMRA's office in Islamabad chanting "Go Musharraf, go" and calling for an end to curbs on the media.

Jaya Kamlani

[Jaya Kamlani]

“Former Leader Talks of Return to Pakistan, and Maybe Power”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/04/world/asia/04bhutto.html?th&emc=th (full story)

By CARLOTTA GALL
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, June 3 — Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto is stirring up Pakistani politics by quietly talking through intermediaries about a power-sharing deal with the president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, and suggesting in an interview that she could return to Pakistan before the end of the year. Threatened with arrest and dogged by corruption charges, Ms. Bhutto has sat out the last eight years in self-imposed exile in London and Dubai, while still leading what is arguably the country’s largest opposition party…. Her party, the Pakistan People’s Party, was heavily represented in a peaceful rally for Mr. Chaudhry in Abbottabad on Saturday, just weeks after more than 40 people died in Karachi in clashes related to his ouster….

Despite his repeated insistence that Ms. Bhutto will not be allowed to participate in the elections, General Musharraf, according to aides and diplomats, has been conducting discreet negotiations for some kind of deal that would allow her to return and him to stay on as president. The corruption charges, which Ms. Bhutto says are politically motivated, might then be dropped…. She was twice prime minister, from 1988 to 1990 and then from 1993 to 1996, when her personal and political fortunes unraveled.

Jaya Kamlani

[Jaya Kamlani]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070607/ap_on_re_as/pakistan (full story) – AP Jun 7,2007
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Thousands of lawyers, journalists and opposition activists staged a sit-in protest in the Pakistani city of Lahore, demanding President Gen. Pervez Musharraf resign for suspending a popular Supreme Court judge and enacting restrictions on the media. Some of the 7,000 people gathered in front of the provincial assembly in Lahore shouted "Go, Musharraf, go!" while others taped their mouths shut to protest alleged government censorship….

Musharraf passed an order this week giving a media regulator the power to seize equipment and seal the premises of offending broadcasters or distributors. The order prompted a series of media protests, including one Thursday by about 100 reporters who chanted "We want freedom!" in front of the federal parliament….

Meanwhile, exiled former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, whose elected government was overthrown by Musharraf in 1999, blasted the president in an interview with National Public Radio on Thursday, saying he has become an autocratic ruler…. Sharif and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto have both vowed to return to Pakistan from their respective exiles ahead of elections due by the end of the year. Sharif has been living in Saudi Arabia and London, and Bhutto divides her time between London and the United Arab Emirates. Musharraf banished Sharif for 10 years after the 1999 coup and has threatened him with arrest if he returns. On Thursday, Sharif said he was willing to run that risk.

Jaya Kamlani

[Jaya Kamlani]

“Pakistan Arrests 300 Workers From Opposition” (NYTimes.com)

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/07/world/asia/07pakistan.html (full story)
By CARLOTTA GALL June 7, 2007
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, June 6 — The police have arrested more than 300 political party workers over the past few days in a crackdown before a protest planned this week against new government curbs on the news media, a government official acknowledged Wednesday. Opposition parties have said hundreds of their workers have been rounded up in house raids in Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province. The home secretary of Punjab, Khusro Fazal Khan, told the independent channel GEO Television that the police had arrested 312 local political leaders and workers throughout the province.
“There was a crackdown in the whole of Punjab,” said Pervez Ashraf, a member of Parliament for the People’s Party of Pakistan, the main opposition group, in discussing the detentions. “They entered houses by breaking doors, and hundreds of people were arrested.”

The police have also registered cases against 200 journalists, including seven prominent correspondents and editors, accusing them of interfering with the government and occupying the prime minister’s secretariat. The deputy editor of Daily Ausaf, Chaudhry R. Shamsi, one of the seven journalists named in the case, said he was more concerned about the death threats that individual journalists were receiving than the suspension of commercial television stations.

“We want security for journalists, and we want life insurance,” he said.

The three commercial television stations were back on the air on Wednesday after several days of disruption, apparently after the owners held talks with the government. Hamid Mir, an announcer at GEO Television, said that it would prove to be only a temporary reprieve and that he expected more disruptions. He said he was sending his family abroad on Thursday because of threats and because his children were being followed to school.
Hamid Mir, an announcer at GEO Television, said that it would prove to be only a temporary reprieve and that he expected more disruptions. He said he was sending his family abroad on Thursday because of threats and because his children were being followed to school.

“They just want control,” Kashif Abbasi, anchor of a popular daily talk show on ARY Television, said of the government. “You cannot talk against the army, the judiciary, and we are told, ‘Be polite about the president,’ ” he said. “If you take out the judiciary, then this is the whole crisis,” he said. He said he expected the pressure to continue until presidential elections, which are due by Oct. 15. “That’s the big task ahead,” Mr. Abbasi said.

Jaya Kamlani

[Jaya Kamlani]

“Pakistan's Musharraf withdraws curbs on media” June 9, 2007
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070609/wl_afp/pakistanjusticemedia_070609155640 (full story)
ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf Saturday agreed to withdraw curbs recently imposed on private television channels that sparked wide criticism at home and abroad, officials said. He took the decision during a meeting with Pakistan Broadcasters Association (PBA) representatives at his office in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, a top information ministry official said….

"The President has agreed to withdraw the PEMRA ordinance after assurances by PBA that they would submit a new code of ethics for the electronic media," said the official.

The operation of the decree had already been suspended by prime Minister Shaukat Aziz after a pandemonium in parliament on Wednesday with scuffles between slogan-chanting journalists and government officials. There were also several protests around the country earlier in the week. The regulator was empowered to seal the premises or confiscate broadcasters' equipment and suspend their licences. The government earlier blocked transmissions of three private television stations. Musharraf is facing the biggest crisis of his eight years in power since suspending Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on March 9. Political violence in Karachi on May 12 left more than 40 people dead.

Jaya Kamlani

[Jaya Kamlani]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070616/wl_sthasia_afp/pakistanjusticeprotest_070616175921 (full story) - AFP

“Pakistan judge leads rally as US backs Musharraf”

PINDI BHATTIAN, Pakistan (AFP) - Tens of thousands of Pakistanis showered rose petals over a procession led by Pakistan's suspended top judge Saturday as US officials backed embattled President Pervez Musharraf. Flag-waving crowds flocked to welcome Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in several towns as his motorcade made the 290-kilometre (180-mile) trek from Islamabad to the industrial city of Faisalabad.

"The chief justice is the one man carrying the struggle against Musharraf. We wholeheartedly support him," said Abdul Malik, a labourer in the town of Pindi Bhattian who waited from 2:00 am to see Chaudhry.

Several thousand supporters met the judge in the town as evening fell. Earlier some 20,000 people greeted him in the town of Chakwal. Tens of thousands greeted the chief justice along the way when he travelled to the northwestern city of Abbotabad and Lahore in the east on previous occasions….

Chaudhry's Faisalabad rally comes as a visiting top US diplomat offered full backing to Musharraf, one of Washington's key allies in the "war on terror" since 2001. US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, one of three American officials making an unprecedented collective trip to Pakistan, it was up to the embattled military ruler to decide when to quit as army chief….

Jaya Kamlani

[Jaya Kamlani]

“Pakistan court reinstates top judge”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070720/ap_on_re_as/pakistan (full story)

Excerpts from the article:
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The Supreme Court on Friday reinstated Pakistan's top judge, ruling that his suspension by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf was illegal and dealing a major blow to the authority of the staunch U.S. ally.

The ruling to reinstate Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry is probably the biggest challenge to Musharraf's dominance since he seized power in a coup in 1999. It could further complicate his bid to win a new five-year presidential term this fall and comes at a time when Islamic militants are on the offensive.

Lawyers celebrated outside the court, chanting "Go, Musharraf, go!" The verdict also prompted celebrations among gatherings of hundreds of lawyers in major cities, including Karachi, Multan, Faisalabad, Quetta, Peshawar and Rawalpindi…
Exiled former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto declared it to be one of the most remarkable judgments in the history of Pakistan's judiciary…

The movement in support of Chaudhry had "turned into struggle against dictatorship, (for the) restoration of the Constitution and for supremacy of the Parliament," she said in a statement.

A top Pakistani human rights activists declared the verdict as an assertion of the independence of the judiciary and a victory for civil society…

However, more recently, Pakistan's deteriorating security situation has overshadowed the judicial crisis. Suicide attacks, bombings and fighting between security forces and Islamic militants has killed about 290 people since clashes between the army and radicals in Islamabad's Red Mosque broke out July 3…. (continued)….

Jaya Kamlani