CNN International, broadcasting in the SF Bay Area in the mid-morning hours, does a good job with important news not seen elsewhere, or at least not seen at such length. This morning the imbroglio in Pakistan between General-President Musharraf and the legal establishment is getting play. Lawyers in business suits and fine shoes are marching along the boulevards with linked arms, some of them bleeding from facial cuts, smoke and tear gas rising.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: A political and legal maelstrom has erupted after Pakistan’s president, General Pervez Musharraf, unceremoniously suspended the country’s chief justice last week, in a step that lawyers and rights activists have called an assault on the independence of the judiciary.
The suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, who did not shy away from taking on cases that challenged the government, has set off immense controversy and threatens to spiral into a constitutional crisis, according to lawyers and analysts here.
What is interesting about this is the different face we are shown here of Pakistan. So often what we hear about Pakistan leads us to believe that only god fanatics, vicious secret police, Muslim terrorists and a coup empowered President live there. Yet here we have the sacking of the Chief Justice leading to street protests not by the disenfranchised masses but by those who believe in an independent judiciary. Quite an interesting story and not over by a long shot.
[I wonder what year it will be when thousands of lawyers are in the streets of America demanding the ouster of the Attorney General of the United States for breaking his oath of office?]
The story doesn’t stop there, however. The Australian, among other papers, is tying the unrest and potential danger to Musharraf’s hold on power, to US interference (per usual) in the internal affairs of another country.
THE US has indicated for the first time that it might be willing to back plans by elite echelons of the military in Islamabad to oust Pervez Musharraf from power, as the Pakistani President was beset by major new difficulties over his attempts to sack the country’s chief justice.
Reports yesterday quoting highly placed US diplomatic and intelligence officials – previously rusted on to the view that General Musharraf was an indispensable Western ally in the battle against terrorism – outlined a succession plan to replace him.US officials told The New York Times the plan would see the Vice-Chief of the Army, Ahsan Saleem Hyat, take over from General Musharraf as head of the military and former banker Mohammedmian Soomro installed as president, with General Hyat wielding most of the power
US and the Ousting of Musharraf
The big fear about Pakistan is, of course, the combination of nuclear weapons, known and unknown webs of arms trading, a powerful and contentious military, radical Islam and the proximity of India and radical Hindiism. Oh, and the pulsating boil of Kashmir to provide a cause for almost anything…
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