NYT : Lawyers Battle Police Over Election Ruling in Pakistan

Lawyers Battle Police Over Election Ruling in Pakistan

By CARLOTTA GALL | September 30, 2007

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Sept. 29 — Riot police officers fought with batons and tear gas against lawyers protesting President Pervez Musharraf’s bid for re-election outside the Supreme Court and Election Commission on Saturday. Dozens of lawyers and some journalists were beaten and a number arrested in the clashes, witnesses said.

As the mood grew uglier, the state minister for information, Tariq Azim Khan, was badly beaten by angry journalists as he was leaving the election commission building.

The lawyers were protesting a Supreme Court ruling Friday that cleared the way for General Musharraf’s re-election as president while he is still in uniform. They tried to march on the Election Commission, which was examining nominations for the Oct. 6 presidential election on Saturday morning. It was the first time since July that the black-suited lawyers, who campaigned for months against General Musharraf’s dismissal of the chief justice in March, have come out in force on the streets here in the capital.

As they marched the hundred yards from the Supreme Court down Constitution Avenue to the Election Commission, police officers with helmets, shields and long sticks blocked their way. Lawyers began hurling stones, and the officers retaliated, throwing the stones back and firing tear gas, and then charging and beating protesters.

Plainclothes officers hauled lawyers off to police vans, including one of the leaders of the movement, Ali Ahmad Kurd. Aitzaz Ahsan, another leading member of the lawyers’ movement, was bludgeoned by a policeman who hit him with a heavy brick in his stomach.

Despite the commotion outside on the street, the Election Commission approved General Musharraf’s nomination for the presidential election, as well as those of two of his opponents, the former Supreme Court judge, Wajihuddin Ahmed, and the Pakistan Peoples Party politician, Makhdoom Amin Fahim. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Mr. Khan, the information minister, were present as supporters of General Musharraf’s nomination.

Lawyers representing Mr. Ahmed lodged objections to General Musharraf’s candidacy, in particular that he holds the position of chief of army staff, has already served the limit of two terms, and should not be elected a second time by the same assembly. But the Election Commission did not accept the objections, and the lawyers emerged saying they would now take the matter to the courts on Monday.

“Twenty lawyers have been injured,” said Mohammed Ikram Chaudhry, former vice president of the Supreme Court Bar Association. “Three journalists were given a fierce beating. A lot of lawyers were taken away. They will use force against anyone who is against them,” he said of the authorities.

“We wanted to go to the Election Commission and demonstrate in a peaceful manner,” said Rafaqat Bashir, 32, an advocate from nearby Rawalpindi, who was carrying a police cane which he said he had snatched from a policeman beating him.

“The police hit me, and this is his stick,” he said. He said he had come with 300 other lawyers, traveling in twos and threes into the city since early morning, to protest General Musharraf’s military rule. “He has no right to rule. He is a soldier, he should serve on the borders,” he said.

In his office inside the Supreme Court, Mr. Ahsan seemed to recognize that the lawyers could no longer stop the Oct. 6 election, but he said the lawyers would continue to expose the illegitimacy of General Musharraf’s rule. “Elections are all about a mandate from the people,” he said. “This is going to be a virtual election. It’s not an election. Nobody is deceived.”

The lawyers would return to the courts to challenge General Musharraf’s re-election and would be out protesting at every court hearing in the coming days and weeks, Mr. Ahsan said. “The man is on very thin ice and he is slipping,” he added.