Pakistan: Elections to proceed in January, says PM

[Awesome]

AKI - Adnkronos international Pakistan: Elections to proceed in January, says PM

Islamabad, 5 Nov. (AKI) - Pakistan's prime minister Shaukat Aziz says the country's parliamentary elections will proceed in January despite President Pervez Musharraf's declaration of emergency rule.

Aziz said on Monday that: "The next general elections will be held according to the schedule."

Musharraf imposed a state of emergency on Saturday, citing the need to curb extremism. There were suggestions at the time that the elections, scheduled for January 2008, might be postponed for at least a year.

The United States, has said that it is "deeply disturbed" by Musharraf's decision to declare a state of emergency. US secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, speaking at a news conference in the West Bank on Monday, urged Musharraf to reinstate civilian rule.

"We believe that the best path for Pakistan is to quickly return to a constitutional path and then to hold elections," Rice said.

"It is also true that President Musharraf has said that he will take off his uniform. That would be an important step."

Adnkronos International (AKI) has learnt that as many as 2,500 lawyers were arrested on Monday as they protested against emergency rule.

Reports say that there were fierce clashes between the police and the lawyers in at least three of the country's biggest cities - Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi and the police used tear gas and batons to suppress the demonstrations.

The leaders of several opposition parties and rights activists have also been arrested.

 

[genmirajborgza786]

Bhutto to Musharraf: We Can Still Deal By ARYN BAKER
2 hours, 52 minutes ago



As police and the military used tear gas to suppress a protest by thousands of lawyers in Pakistan's largest cities, opposition leader Benazir Bhutto spoke to TIME about the imposition of martial law by President Pervez Musharraf. She said that Musharraf was falling under the sway of the more radical parts of his Pakistan Muslim League (Q) (PML-Q) party. Still, she said she was not shutting the door on negotiations with Musharraf. Bhutto, who leads the huge People's Party, has not asked her millions of fervent followers to come out into the streets. During the interview, she evinced some sympathy for Musharraf over his feud with the Supreme Court. The court was about to decide whether he could simultaneously lead the military and be President when martial law was declared and the chief justice put under house arrest. The same Supreme Court was also to decide on the merits of Musharraf's U.S.-backed deal with Bhutto to drop corruption charges against her and her husband Asif Zardari so she could return from exile to run for office and regain the Prime Ministership. Nevertheless, Bhutto said that "extra-constitutional" methods were unnecessary and that martial law will only exacerbate Islamic militancy and terrorism. Meanwhile, the capital of Islamabad was in lockdown, with no demonstrations in sight as the roads surrounding the Supreme Court building were blocked by tanks and barbed wire and lined with hundreds of security personnel.


TIME: What do you make of Musharraf's declaration of emergency?
BENAZIR BHUTTO: Actually, we call it martial law. The constitution has been suspended and while Musharraf is terming it an emergency for international consumption, he has actually in his capacity of Chief of Army Staff suspended the constitution of Pakistan and promulgated a new provisional order. The result of this is that he has stopped democracy in its tracks. And he has given an extended life to his ruling PML-Q party.
I may mention that the PML-Q has some moderate elements in it, but the core strength of the Q comes from those people associated with General Zia ul Haq - the military dictator of the '80s that established the mujheddin - and it is these people whose governance has seen, by coincidence or otherwise, the growth of [Islamic] militancy in Pakistan. They are the ones that have presided over the signing of peace treaties and cease-fires in the tribal areas. They have lost control of our tribal areas.
The militants are knocking on the doors of Swat; they are eyeing the capital city of Islamabad. They have access to superior sources of plastic explosives and they have constructed bombs and improvised explosive devices to be used against my rally, against the ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence] bus [in Rawalpindi on Oct. 20], against officers, against the air force. They call it suicide bombing, but it is not suicide bombing. Our analysis is that these are IEDs [Improvised Explosive Devices] that are being placed and have been hushed up under the name of suicide bombings.
That's why we have requested international assistance on the inquiry of the bomb blasts that took place on my procession on October 19th, because it follows the same pattern. And we think intelligence cooperation should be between Pakistani police and international police agencies, Scotland Yard or the FBI. We want to get to the bottom of the culprits behind these blasts.


And what does this mean for the future of the country?
It is a very big problem. It means that dictatorship will be sustained until it is reversed. It is a clear breach of the understanding that Musharraf has with my party. We have been engaged with him for a period of time for a negotiated peaceful transfer to democracy. He has promised to retire as army chief. He has promised to hold fair elections, and implement fair election reform. Contrary to these promises, he has imposed emergency without consulting me. We advised him against doing this. And he chose to side with the hard-core elements of the ruling PML-Q. Now I feel that until democracy is restored we will be fueling the forces of extremism.


Does this mean that all negotiations with him are off? Are you pulling the plug?
We are not pulling any plug; he is the one that stopped negotiating once I returned to the country. He calls me up to condole, and then after that I heard that his people were going to come and visit me to talk about the second phase, which was the implementation of the fair election proposal followed by the balance of power between the presidency and the parliament. But they never came. They kept saying they would come, but they never did. They never showed up. So in fact they just bought time, and then suddenly when I was in Dubai they announced martial law. I caught the first plane back to be with my people who have suffered so much. My people who had sacrificed 158 lives - the final death toll of the Karachi blasts.


So what does this mean for negotiations? Are you done?
Well, he may break his word, but we don't. We keep our word; we keep our commitments. We went forward with the process that we thought was in the national interest. Which was to take this nuclear armed nation, which is a key country in this region, towards democracy, so that there would be stability so that we could unite the forces of moderation, so we could confront the forces of extremism. But unilaterally they broke the negotiations by the imposition of emergency. So now we are demanding a return to the constitution, Musharraf to retire as chief of army staff, and that he hold the elections on time as he earlier committed to us.
We told him in August during our talks in London, that there were issues with his eligibility and that he needed to have constitutional reforms like balance of power between the presidency and the parliament. That could help the country go through this period with stability. But he said no, "I am eligible." This martial law was imposed because he was expecting an adverse court order on his eligibility. Whereas the eligibility issue could have been settled by parliament if he was willing to pay the political price that we demanded. But he preferred to impose martial law over seeking a political solution. And that's the dangerous part, that's the part that worries me.


If he goes ahead and answers your demands, do you think you can work with him in good faith?
My faith has certainly been shaken, but I would ask what's the timetable? As we have seen, the promises are made but then they are broken. What we are talking about to restore good faith is up-front action. We are talking about up-front revival of the constitution, up-front retirement as chief of army staff and up-front elections on schedule, announced by November 15th, and held by January 15th. If he is prepared to take these measures, along with some others, then we can say that all that has occurred, we will let it drop. But if he is not prepared to do this, then it becomes very difficult to work with someone who makes a promise but cannot keep it.


And what about reinstating the Supreme Court?
Well, we think that the judiciary should be respected.


So would you want to see the reinstatement of Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry? And all the other dismissed judges?
Well, if there is a complaint against the judges, the government should follow the normal avenues of complaint. There are normal ways to address complaints against judges. You don't need extra-constitutional measures.

Do you think these judges were actually in the wrong?
I am not aware of the details but I know that General Musharraf has made some allegations against the judges, and they are allegations that they must respond to. They are very serious allegations. Without going into the merits of the allegations, I'm simply saying that there are ways to deal with these allegations of misconduct and not use them as a pretext for the imposition of martial law.


When Musharraf made his declaration of emergency rule, he said it was in the interest of fighting terrorism in Pakistan. Do you agree with him?
I agree that there is terrorism in the country, I believe it has spread since the 2002 elections when the People's Party was excluded from the government, but I don't believe martial law was declared to stop terrorism, I believe it was declared to stop an adverse decision by the Supreme Court on Musharraf's eligibility to remain as President and to keep the ruling PML-Q in power.


What kind of effect do you think martial law will have on terrorism?
This will worsen the situation for terrorism. It will take the focus of the army and the police away from fighting terrorists. The militants and terrorists would have wanted nothing better than a fresh confrontation between the people and the government. And it is to prevent instability that my party and I have taken the decision to have political negotiations with General Musharraf in order to weaken the terrorists. But I am afraid his actions have played into the terrorist's hands. And he should remedy it. All of us who have a stake in eliminating terrorism must all work together to reverse what has happened.

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[EagleEyes]

Elections may be delayed for a year: Aziz
By Ahmed Hassan

ISLAMABAD, Nov 4: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Sunday defended President Pervez Musharraf’s move to impose a state of emergency and said general elections could be put off for up to a year.

Addressing a news conference, Mr Aziz acknowledged that 400 to 500 people had been rounded up.

He was non-committal about how long the emergency would continue and just said that it would last for “as long as it was an utmost necessity”.

However, Mr Aziz said a decision about rescheduling the elections would be taken after consultation with all stakeholders.

Parliament was empowered, he said, to delay elections for a year under a state of emergency.

The news conference in the Prime Minister’s House was held under the glaring lights of a host of television cameras, though the prime minister and his aides sitting with him were aware that barring the state-run Pakistan Television, none of the local or international news channels could be viewed in the country because of the government ban on private TV channels.

Answering a question, Mr Aziz said the federal and provincial governments were working under the Provisional Constitutional Order, although the set-up remained parliamentary.

Regarding rejection of the imposition of emergency by a bench of the Supreme Court, he claimed: “This ruling holds no significance as it came after the declaration of emergency and the judges on the bench had been removed from their office.”

When asked if Gen Pervez Musharraf would doff his military uniform after taking oath as president for the next term, Mr Aziz said the matter was in the court.

He insisted that no decision had been taken about the election date. The government remained committed to the democratic process, he said. Endorsing the views expressed by Gen Musharraf in his address to the nation, the prime minister said Pakistan was in a crisis caused by militant violence and a judiciary which had paralysed the government.

He said the decision to proclaim emergency had been taken to “ensure the writ of the government, improve the law and order situation and maintain harmony among the judiciary, executive and legislature, so that the government could function smoothly”.

He said the government wanted to be able to act effectively and protect the lives of people, which could not be done with ordinary laws. He said the security situation in the country and Afghanistan and the presence of foreign troops there had prompted the government to take extraordinary measures.

Although the Constitution had been held in abeyance, all the activities would continue normally, he said.

“The judiciary will function in the normal way. Army will not be called in any part of the country and only police and paramilitary forces will be used,” he said.

Responding to a volley of questions about curbs on media, he said the government wanted an agreement on a code of conduct for setting parameters for the electronic media before allowing the blocked private television channels to resume their telecasts.

Elections may be delayed for a year: Aziz -DAWN - Top Stories; November 05, 2007

 

[Awesome]

FT.com / In depth - Plan to delay Pakistan election reversed

Plan to delay Pakistan election reversed

Pakistan will hold elections as scheduled in January, ministers said on Monday in a reversal of weekend suggestions that they would be postponed for up to a year.

The change of heart came as police armed with tear gas and staves fought lawyers in Lahore and arrested hundreds of others in the first sign that General Pervez Musharraf, the president, may have miscalculated the extent to which civil society is ready to take to the streets in defence of democracy.

Gen Musharraf last night came under intense US pressure to restore civilian rule and to release about 1,500 people detained under emergency provisions announced at the weekend.

The barrage of international criticism of de facto martial law appeared to be having an effect.

Shaukat Aziz, the prime minister, said: “Our thinking about the election is that it will be held according to schedule.”

Malik Abdul Qayyum, the attorney-general, said Pakistan’s national and provincial assemblies would be dissolved in 10 days’ time. “It has been decided there would be no delay in the election and by November 15, these assemblies will be dissolved and the election will be held within the next 60 days,” he told Reuters.

Gen Musharraf has been fighting for his political future since March, when he sparked a crisis by trying unsuccessfully to dismiss the supreme court chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry, who was sacked for a second time on Saturday.

“You can’t defy the whole world,” one minister told the FT, noting that the dismissal of the chief justice had removed an important obstacle to Gen Musharraf’s plans to have his re-election as president validated by the supreme court.

Dana Perino, a White House spokeswoman, said President George W. Bush was urging the Pakistani president to restore constitutional rule, adding that the US was “deeply disturbed” by Gen Musharraf’s move.

Robert Gates, the US defence secretary and source of much of the financial support that the US provides Pakistan’s military establishment, piled on the pressure, joining state department officials in threatening a review of aid programmes.

The Pentagon also postponed defence co-operation talks scheduled for this week.

Asked by Islamabad-based diplomats whether he would keep a promise to step out of uniform by November 15 and to hold elections in January, Gen Musharraf said he intended to do both eventually, but could no longer guarantee the timing.

Pakistan’s political parties have so far failed to bring their supporters on to the streets in support of the legal community, reflecting in part the success of the government’s strategy of dividing and ruling rival groups and leaders.

Opposition politicians from parties that have taken a confrontational approach to the former commando’s re-election plans have been detained under house arrest, while ones from Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s party have not.

Ms Bhutto, who has been negotiating a power-sharing arrangement with Gen Musharraf, has criticised the state of emergency and the scale of the arrests, but was on Monday expected to fly to Islamabad for further talks with the army chief.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

^^ Elections on time does not mean the emergency will be lifted though - but will that be acceptable to the West?

 

[EagleEyes]

I believe emergency will be lifted soon. The government is having a bad time in emergency.

 

[EagleEyes]

Its going to be in February.

US Applauds Election Plan in Pakistan
By DEB RIECHMANN – 1 day ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Bush White House on Thursday applauded Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's decision to proceed with elections in Pakistan, which has been convulsing from his imposition of emergency rule last week.

"We think it is a good thing that President Musharraf has clarified the election date for the Pakistani people," press secretary Dana Perino said in a statement given to reporters who were accompanying the president on a trip to Texas later Thursday.

The administration issued the statement welcoming the election the day after President Bush exhorted the embattled Musharraf in a telephone call to hold elections and to step down as head of the military in the Southwest Asian nation that has been riddled by unrest for the past several days.

"You can't be the president and the head of the military at the same time," Bush said Wednesday, telling reporters about the 20-minute telephone call he had with Musharraf. Said the president: "I had a very frank discussion with him."

The conversation was the first communication the U.S. president had with Musharraf since the Pakistani declared emergency rule last Saturday and granted sweeping powers to authorities to crush political dissent.

At the State Department on Thursday, spokesman Sean McCormack said a review of U.S. aid to Pakistan was still in progress and would not speak to any preliminary findings it may have reached.

He said that U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson had met with Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, who plans to hold a mass rally to protest Musharraf's emergency powers on Friday. Authorities in Pakistan have said the rally is illegal.

McCormack declined to discuss details of Patterson's conversation with Bhutto but stressed that Washington did not want to see any situation that could lead to violence.

"It is absolutely essential to have open political discussion, peaceful political discussion, peaceful expression of political views," he said. "But also it is important, during this sensitive time in Pakistan's history, to try to maintain an atmosphere of calm, in which you can have open, rational dialogue and so that the Pakistani people are able to peacefully express themselves and their desires about return to constitutional and democratic rule."

Earlier in Islamabad, Musharraf announced after a meeting of his National Security Council that elections would be held in February, a month later than had been planned previously. The announcement, nevertheless, was seen as a signal that the state of emergency there would not last long and that security restrictions would likely have to be eased to allow campaigning.

Sen. Joseph R. Biden, D-Del., who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, renewed his criticism of the Bush administration's way of dealing with Musharraf in a telephone news conference Thursday.

"I wonder why the president wasn't on the phone the first day with him," Biden said, "Why it took five days to talk to him."

Biden, after talking to Musharraf by telephone on Tuesday, said he had urged him to "take off his uniform" and "restore the rule of law."

At his news conference Thursday, Biden said, "We have to move from a Musharraf to a Pakistan policy... We have to be more directly involved behind the scenes."

The senator did not rule out Musharraf being "a player" in a more democratic government. But Biden said "if he engages in a permanent suspension of the Constitution that is not a recipe for democracy."

Bush talked about his message to Musharraf as he joined visiting French President Nicolas Sarkozy for a tour of George Washington's home in Mount Vernon, Va., Wednesday.

"My message was very plain, very easy to understand, and that is, the United States wants you to have the elections as scheduled and take your uniform off," he said.

For several days, the administration had faced questions about why Bush was taking a softer line on Pakistan than he did, for instance, against Myanmar where military rulers cracked down on pro-democracy protesters in September.

Bush defended his response to both governments.

"Look, our objective is the same in Burma as it is in Pakistan, and that is to promote democracy," Bush said. "There is a difference, however. Pakistan has been on the path to democracy. Burma hadn't been on the path to democracy. And it requires different tactics to achieve the common objective."

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AP Diplomatic Correspondent Barry Schweid and Associated Press Writer Matthew Lee contributed to this story.