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Musharraf Rocked by Judge Ruling Amid Fresh Bloodshed
ISLAMABAD - Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, battling a wave of Islamist violence, suffered another blow Friday when the supreme court gave a victory to his political nemesis, the country's top judge.
Musharraf ousted independent-minded chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in March, but the court reinstated him and quashed corruption charges filed by the president in what critics say was a bid to retain his grip on power.
General Musharraf, who staged a bloodless coup in 1999, hopes to stay on as both president and army chief in defiance of the constitution.
The court ruling hit Musharraf during the worst crisis of his eight-year rule, amid a wave of deadly violence sparked by the bloody storming by government forces last week of the pro-Taliban Red Mosque in Islamabad.
The death toll from the Islamist carnage passed 200 in less than a week Friday, after another suicide attack killed four people in the tribal area of North Waziristan, where militants last Sunday tore up a shaky ceasefire pact.
Musharraf has come under intense pressure from the United States, one of Islamabad's key allies since the events of 9/11, to crack down on Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters in the troubled tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
At home, the supreme court's verdict was set to embolden activists who have staged mass rallies around the country in support of Chaudhry since his suspension, campaigning for democracy and judicial independence.
"Pervez Musharraf should resign because the charges were illegal and have been declared null and void by the highest legal authority in the country," Ali Ahmad Kurd, a senior lawyer for Chaudhry, said outside the court.
Munir Malik, head of the top lawyers' association, called the verdict "a new dawn for Pakistan" -- which has been under military rule for over half its existence -- and said "a free and independent judiciary has now been founded."
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said the government had accepted the supreme court's decision, which sparked massive celebrations by lawyers, but added it was "not the time to claim victory or defeat."
As fighting raged between troops and pro-Taliban fighters in North Waziristan, Musharraf convened a crisis meeting while government envoys and Pashtun elders met in a secret location in a bid to salvage the ceasefire deal.
The military ruler has vowed to hunt down extremists who, according to Washington and NATO forces in Afghanistan, are hiding in Pakistan's northwest.
The White House -- losing patience after a recent intelligence assessment said al-Qaeda has "safe havens" in western Pakistan -- has ramped up the pressure on its key ally, and even warned the United States may go it alone.
Asked on Thursday whether US President George W. Bush had ruled out US military action inside Pakistan, his spokesman Tony Snow replied: "We never rule out any options, including striking actionable targets."
When reporters asked if Bush would first seek authorisation from Musharraf, Snow told them: "Those are matters that are best not discussed publicly."
Musharraf on Friday gathered key officials, including Aziz and the governor of troubled North West Frontier Province, for an emergency meeting focused on restoring order in the battle-torn northwest.
"The participants will exchange views on the law and order situation in the wake of the recent bomb blasts and discuss measures to control the situation and bring peace," a presidential spokesman told AFP.
Pakistan has been terrorised by an unprecedented wave of suicide attacks for almost a week, with bombers on Thursday targeting an army mosque, a police college and a convoy carrying Chinese nationals, killing a total of 54 people.
The attack against the Chinese mine engineers in insurgency-wracked Baluchistan apparently aimed to harm Islamabad's relations with Beijing, another crucial ally and its biggest provider of aid and military hardware.
China condemned the suicide car bomb attack that left at least 30 Pakistanis but no Chinese dead, two weeks after demanding better security for its citizens over the killing of three Chinese men.
Musharraf, who this week ruled out declaring a state of emergency or scrapping planned elections, has urged the nation to stand united.
"The challenge needs to be faced with courage, but one person alone cannot do it," he said Thursday. "I cannot do it alone. Neither the police, nor the army can do it alone, unless the people of the country support it."
Copyright © AFP 2007
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10 Comments so far
Show AllAl Qeada has had a "safe haven" there for years now. The "War on Terror" looks like the biggest scam ever sold.
It will be interesting to see what St.Musharraf will do, now that he is in a corner. In all likelihood he will sail through this crisis like all the previous ones by donning his old fatigues and going down on his knees once more to satisfy american interests.
these clowns in washington..."will you seek authorization to bomb a soveriegn nation a few of whose members are attacking your 'interests' in another country you invaded and are destroying?" "all options are on the table."besides being an act of war, if propping up musharraf is the goal, this is the stupidest thing you could possibly do. but hey, what do you expect?
He is screwed either way. If he supports Washington, then he has to deal with an extremely popular uprising. Especially from the many capable and experienced fighters in that region.
If he defies his US Master, then he might become disposable and we may have the second comming of Saddam. Washington will not think twice about "bringing freedom and democracy" to Pakistan if their interest are at stake. Especially when you consider Pakistan has nuclear weapons.
An ally today, a brutal dictator tommorow. That about sums up part Washington's Foreign Policy.
It will very interesting to see how this plays out. Musharraf cannot continue to ignore the demands of his people, but also can't afford to turn his back on the Master(Washington).
The only thing that can make Pakistan worse in the short and long term is intervention by an outside power.
Hold your hats and place your bets on the next place Bu$h the inferior and Shotgun Dick invade and/or bomb.
There must be odds in Vegas on this.
Putting the blame on Pakistan for failure of U.S. military action in Afghanistan is similar to putting blame on Iraqi government for not stabilizing Iraq.
Invasion of Iraq made it evident that the war was on Muslim countries and not on "terror". Absent the Iraq invasion, the situation in Afghanistan and border regions with Pakistan would have been very different
The US has to be careful (hahaha-what a joke!) because in the end run, China is a more important ally to Pakistan than the US. The US doesn't want to engage negatively with China over Pakistan. If Pakistan turns to China and the US does invade Pakistan, we will have to hang on to more than our hats. What happens if China wants to cash in its US bond notes? It holds billions, if not trillions in notes and cash reserves.
The other problem is the middle class of Pakistan. When they look at India, they wonder why Pakistan is not as successful as an economy. Lots of different tensions arise.
You could probably lay the 'blame' for all international terrorism at the feet of the Bush administration. The Tamils have been cited as terrorists long before al-Qaeda was up and running. I consider the Tamils as a legitimate resistance movement. I find it interesting that both America and Israel voted down the separation of resistance movements and terrorism (can't recall which international forum that was).
The inward-looking American regime has no understanding of any culture other than its own. How on earth it can aspire to global control when it can't comprehend different world views is beyond me. It is a recipe for disaster. Yet I hear and see Bush traipsing out the war mongering war on terror rhetoric that the US can't afford to lose, over and over again.
The only way to stop terrorism is for Bush et al to stop being terrorists themselves. But that won't happen whilever the 'American way of life is non-negotiable'. What utter arrogance!
The amount of oil that is produced in Iraq now is equal to the amount of oil the US needs to continue its 'war'. Duh! The rest of the world has to start recognising that oil dependence is no longer an option while the US takes the lion's share to fight its bloody wars. Blind Freddy can see it's just not sustainable.
No wonder Putin is busy shoring up production and control of a third of the global supply of oil and negotiating pipelines to ship out Caspian oil.
No wonder Iran wants its oil customers to pay in any currency except the US$.
No wonder the petrodollar is slipping in value (together with unsound mortgage practices in the sub-prime housing loan market).
Small wonder that our Aussie dollar has risen to its highest exchange rate with the US$ in over 18 or more years. We are now less than 12¢ off parity with the US$. 5 years ago we were about 58¢ to the US$.
Rocky rides indeed! Well, we'll see.
"The inward-looking American regime has no understanding of any culture other than its own"
I dispute this statement though. How is it possible for this regime then to act counter to what most americans want. I agree that the american culture is steeped in violence and was forged on violence. This regime however has no clue what americans want but are totally in sync with their own narrow political and corporate interests.
What describes american attitude best is 'apathy'.
gyptian, July 21st, 2007 2:44 am,
I think I agree with you - apathy is a word that applies to the Aussie attitude as well. And our PM and his cohorts seem to be just as arrogant regarding the electorate's views (which includes the apathetic and media controlled drongos). Same with Bush & Co regarding US sentiments (with the same qualifications as ours). And we, the people, are the ones kept like mushrooms: anyone standing against the crowd usually has a security record somwhere in the bowels of the security fraternity.
However, it is pretty well understood throughout the western world that America's sense of history places America at the centre of the world. The average yobbo in Australia is just as ill-informed. The current push of nationalism and patriotism is a dangerous road to travel.
It's difficult here on the web comment threads to gauge the 'average' however. Those who try to beome informed outside the controlled mainstream media, at least show more than a passing interest in what is actually happening: without stats (and how could you conduct a stats. survey on the web except with massive SDs), I would reckon that (my subjective view) web commenters tend to come not from the average bloke. So it looks skewed to me.
But hey, what would I know? I only have an opinion - not backed by anything very much except my (faulty) perceptions:-)
There are already covert US military probes taking place in the mountainous region of northern Pakistan. These probes are supposed to be our attempts at locating Al Queda fighters and Taliban but I would bet that they are also seeking a route or routes for all-out military ground strikes into northern Pakistan if Musarraf fails in keeping the lid on his boiling pot.
A Pakistani government official has said in an interview on a cable news station that Pakistani people would see any US military action in northern Pakistan as an invasion by a foreign country.
Get ready folks. We may not have time for elections next year. We'll be too damn busy just saving our butts throughout the muslim world.