[NYTr] Musharraf detains opposition leaders

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by Steven L. Robinson (activ-l)

[Pakistani Dictator Musharraf has just arrested 14 of his political
opponents.  If Hugo Chavez or Evo Morales did any such thing, there
would an unimaginable chorus of sanctimonious liberal hand wringing.
Diatribes  and condemnations would sprout by the dozens from the
various "I hate Hugo" websites that abound in cyberspace. Of course,
Chavez and Morales have done no such thing, but US client dictator
Musharraf has done this and other things that scarcely merit any
comment.  Perhaps all is forgiven of US allies in the War on Terror? SR]


Al Jazeera - September 23, 2007
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/31B1E967-F39F-41D6-9F7A-775F67873545.htm


Pakistan detains opposition leaders

Pakistani police have arrested more than a dozen opposition leaders
saying they want to prevent further protests against the re-election of
Pervez Musharraf, the president.

Officers started arresting political figures on Saturday night and
continued into Sunday, taking 14 people in total. Further arrests are
expected during the day.

Most of those taken belong to the party led by Nawaz Sharif, the exiled
former prime minister, whose return to Pakistan was blocked earlier this
month.

Security officials said that police in the capital, Islamabad, had been
ordered to put about 35 opposition leaders into preventive custody.

Chaudhry Mohammad Ali, Islamabad's commissioner, said: "We have
detained 14 people as a preventive measure. They have given calls for
protests and we have fears that they may create disturbances in the
coming days."

Opposition outcry

The chairman of Sharif's faction of the PML-N, Raja Zafar-ul-Haq, and
acting chief, Javed Hashmi, were among those arrested.

Hussain Ahmed, a central leader of the religious alliance, Muttahida
Majlis-e-Amal, was also taken.

"They want to crush every voice of dissent," Hashmi said.

"They have confined me for 30 days, but we will continue to raise our
voice for the rights of the people of Pakistan, for democracy and
against military dictatorship.

"They want power by the use of force, not by the power of the  ballot."

Hashmi, who was freed by the supreme court in August after serving three
years in jail on sedition charges, said that his lawyer would challenge
the "illegal detention" in court.

Police guard

Kamal Hyder, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Islamabad, reported on Sunday
that Hashmi and several other members of the oppostion had been held
under police guard at a parliamentary residence.

The guards were not permitted to allow any of those detained to leave.
They were allowed to receive visitors.

Hyder later said that Hashmi had been transferred to a permanent jail.

"Hashmi. has reportedly been taken to a jail in Rawalpindi. That shows
the determination of the government to move against the opposition in a
very strong way," Hyder said.

Ahsan Iqbal, spokesman for the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), who is
wanted by Pakistani police and currently in hiding, told Al Jazeera
that many of the wanted opposition members were planning on going to
court on Monday to "cancel government orders for their arrests".

'Cowardly' arrests

Ehsan Iqbal, a PML-N spokesman, described the arrests as "cowardly", and
said the government was in a panic over the opposition plan to resign en
masse from parliament once Musharraf's nomination papers are accepted on
September 29.

"They only strengthen our resolve and prove that this is a sham
democracy," Iqbal said.

General Musharraf is waiting to hear whether the supreme court will
uphold challenges to his plan to get elected while still army chief.

The court is hearing petitions challenging Musharraf's right to retain
the posts of president and army chief, the legality of being elected in
uniform, and whether he should be allowed to get a mandate from
outgoing assemblies.

Musharraf regards the court as hostile since his attempt to sack
Iftikhar Chaudhry, the country's chief justice.

Musharraf, who came to power in a 1999 coup, says he will step down as
army chief and become a civilian president before November 15 if he is
re-elected.

It is expected to issue a ruling next week.

An alliance of pro-democracy parties says it will protest against
Musharraf's intention to stand for another five-year term in October
6polls.

On Friday, an opposition alliance said its politicians would resign from
assemblies on September 29 to deny the presidential vote legitimacy.

The parties said they would protest on the streets and have asked the
supreme court to declare Musharraf ineligible to run for another
presidential term.

Anti-Musharraf lawyers said they would blockade the Election Commission
to prevent the general from filing his nomination papers.

An intelligence official said the move was in response to the threat to
escalate the confrontation with the government and disrupt the election.

The supreme court ruled that Sharif could return to contest elections,
but when he did so nearly two weeks ago, the authorities put him on a
plane to Saudi Arabia.