IHT : Pakistan rounds up opposition

Pakistan rounds up opposition

By Jane Perlez | November 4, 2007

ISLAMABAD: About 500 opposition party workers, lawyers and human rights activists were arrested Sunday as the government of General Pervez Musharraf tried to consolidate its control after imposing emergency rule.

About a dozen privately run television news stations remained off the air, and international channels, including the BBC and CNN, were suspended. In the city of Lahore, police officers armed with tear gas tried to break up a meeting of regime opponents at the headquarters of the Pakistan Human Rights Commission. They took dozens of people away in police vans.

Around the country, at least 80 lawyers were arrested in an apparent bid to head off demonstrations that lawyers' groups had planned for Monday.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said Sunday at a news conference that new parliamentary elections, which had been expected in January, could be "up to a year" away. He said that as many as 500 opposition activists had been arrested nationwide.

[The U.S. secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, joining other foreign governments in expressing concern about Pakistan's decision to suspend its Constitution, said Washington was reviewing billions of dollars in aid to the country, The Associated Press reported. Britain also said it was examining its aid package.]

Musharraf announced the emergency decree, under which the Constitution was suspended and most of the Supreme Court was dismissed, on state-run television just after midnight. In a 45-minute speech, the president said he had declared the emergency to limit terrorist attacks and "preserve the democratic transition that I initiated eight years back." He did not say how long the state of emergency would be maintained.

The general, dressed in civilian clothes, quoted the U.S. president Abraham Lincoln, citing his suspension of some rights during the American Civil War as justification for the state of emergency in Pakistan.

Musharraf accused the Supreme Court of releasing 61 men who he said were under investigation for terrorist activities. "Judicial activism," he said, had demoralized the security forces, hurt the fight against terrorism and slowed the spread of democracy. "Obstacles are being created in the way of democratic process," he said, "I think for vested, personal interests, against the interest of the country."

The main opposition leader, Benazir Bhutto, returned to Pakistan on Saturday night from Dubai and accused Musharraf of using the specter of terrorism to prolong his hold on power. "This is not emergency," she said. "This is martial law."

Bhutto spent Sunday at her residence in Karachi. Leaders of her party, the Pakistan People's Party, said she would fly to Islamabad to hold talks with other opposition parties about how to proceed. But Bhutto did not show up here.

In interviews with foreign television channels, Bhutto, who returned to Pakistan after years in exile in October with the backing of the United States, appealed for free and fair elections. But sympathizers to her cause said her options for influencing the situation appeared limited.

Organizing large protests under emergency rule, and after the bomb attack on her arrival procession Oct. 18 that killed 140 people, would be difficult, said Najem Sethi, the editor in chief of The Daily Times.

"Verbally she will be very critical," Sethi said. "But she is not going to participate in protests. She's going to make a token representation. Behind the scenes she will work with the government for elections as soon as possible."

Musharraf summoned foreign diplomats, including the U.S. ambassador, Anne Patterson, to a meeting Sunday to explain the reasons for his action, according to diplomats.

The emergency rule came into force less than 24 hours after Musharraf met here with the senior U.S. military commander in the region, Admiral William Fallon, who warned the Pakistani leader that U.S. military assistance would be in jeopardy if he introduced martial law, diplomats said.

Soon after Musharraf's emergency decree, Washington officials said it was unlikely that the military aid would be cut. Indeed, the general tailored his decree to emphasize the necessity of continuing the fight against Islamic extremists sympathetic to the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Musharraf acted just days before the Supreme Court was due to decide on the legality of his re-election on Oct. 6.

Among the dozens of lawyers arrested was the president of the Supreme Court bar association, Aitzaz Ahsan, who has opposed Musharraf in legal arguments and in political protests, said Ayesha Tammy Haq, an Islamabad lawyer.

"If you want to take the country away from Talibanization, these are the people who can do it, the secular middle class," Haq said as she waited Sunday at the Adiala jail in Rawalpindi to see Ahsan.

A government spokesman, Tariq Aziz Khan, said the arrests of lawyers were "preventive measures" taken because of a "threat to future law and order."

In the spring, lawyers spearheaded opposition to Musharraf after he fired the chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. The Supreme Court later reinstated Chaudhry, who continued to irritate Musharraf. By the end of last week, the general seemed unsure that the Supreme Court would rule favorably on his re-election.

Under the emergency declaration, the Supreme Court justices were ordered to take an oath to abide by a "provisional constitutional order" that replaces the country's existing Constitution. Seven justices rejected the order Saturday night, according to an aide to Chaudhry.

Hours later, the state-run news media reported that three justices generally seen as supporting Musharraf had taken an oath to uphold the emergency measure. And it was announced that Chaudhry had been replaced by a pro-government member of the Supreme Court bench, Abdul Hamid Doger, as chief justice.

The director of the private television channel Aaj TV, Wamiq Zuberi, said a magistrate accompanied by five vans of gun-toting police officers showed up at the channel's studios here Saturday night. They wanted to confiscate the channel's outdoor broadcasting van, Zuberi said. But the magistrate did not have a warrant, and the workers at the studio stood their ground, forcing the officials to leave, Zuberi said.

Aziz, the prime minister, said Sunday that the government planned to work on "a code of conduct" for broadcasters.

Representatives of several of the major opposition parties said their workers had been arrested. Ahsan Iqbal, the secretary for information of the Muslim League party, headed by the exiled politician Nawaz Sharif, said that eight party members had been arrested in the remote district of Narowal on the border with India. Sharif was overthrown as prime minister by Musharraf in coup in 1999.
Rice urges elections

Rice, speaking to reporters in Jerusalem on Sunday, also urged Musharraf to call elections and repeated U.S. displeasure at emergency rule, which she advised against in two telephone calls to him on Wednesday, news agencies reported.

"Obviously we are going to have to review the situation with aid, in part because we have to see what may be triggered by certain statutes," Rice said.

The United States has provided about $11 billion to Pakistan since 2001, when Musharraf made a strategic shift to be an ally with the United States after the Sept. 11 attacks. Rice said Washington would review its aid in light of the new emergency measures, though the Pentagon said earlier that the emergency rule would not affect its military support to Pakistan.

"Some of the aid that goes to Pakistan is directly related to the counterterrorism mission," Rice told reporters traveling with her in the Middle East. "We just have to review the situation."

A spokesman of British Foreign Office said it would also "consider the implications of the situation for our development and other programs in Pakistan." He spoke anonymously in line with department policy.

Pakistan is scheduled to receive a total of £480 million, or $960 million, in assistance over the next three years, the Foreign Office said.