Opposition to Musharraf rises
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Two of Pakistan’s most popular public figures issued separate challenges Tuesday to President Perzev Musharraf, potentially raising the stakes and heightening the danger of a standoff over the imposition of emergency rule in the country, which is a key U.S. ally.
Pakistan’s deposed chief justice issued a rousing call for followers to resist Musharraf’s emergency declaration, while former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto arrived in the capital and demanded restoration of the constitution and the holding of free elections. Bhutto plans to participate in a demonstration against the emergency measures Friday in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.
Musharraf, a general who seized the presidency in 1999 and remains army chief of staff, assumed sweeping new powers Saturday. Since then, he has suspended the constitution, fired Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, knocked independent television stations off the air and had thousands of opponents rounded up by police.
Pakistanis have taken to calling it Musharraf’s “second coup.”
Despite the deepening crisis, President Bush refrained for a fourth day from calling Musharraf. Bush faced demands that he take more strenuous action amid fear of even greater instability in Pakistan, which relies heavily on U.S. military aid and has helped the United States in its campaign against al-Qaida.
Chaudhry, addressing supporters for the first time since being placed under effective house arrest Saturday night, declared that “this is the time to sacrifice” – language that appeared to suggest that mass street protests should go ahead even if they result in bloodshed.
The former justice, who in past months became an emblem of resistance to Musharraf’s rule, spoke by mobile phone to about two dozen lawyers who crowded into the offices of the Islamabad Bar Association. Hundreds more lawyers gathered outside to listen.
“The constitution has been ripped to shreds,” Chaudhry said, his voice crackling over loudspeakers as the crowd fell silent. “The lawyers should convey my message to the people to rise up and restore the constitution.”
It was not clear how Chaudhry, who has been incommunicado for the past two days except for a statement relayed by his lawyer, obtained a mobile phone. Soon after he spoke, mobile phone service was disrupted in the capital – similar to a cutoff of phone service soon after the state of emergency was declared.
Within hours, however, a recording of his phone message was being transmitted to Musharraf opponents nationwide and circulated on some Web sites of independent television stations.
Street protests thus far have been largely confined to groups of lawyers and activists, thousands of whom clashed with police in major cities Monday. A nationwide groundswell of resistance, though, could threaten to topple Musharraf or bring about an even tighter clampdown.
Bhutto and Chaudhry have the proven ability to mobilize tens of thousands of followers. Chaudhry’s backers staged massive demonstrations eight months ago when Musharraf first tried to fire the respected chief justice – protests that grew into a nationwide pro-democracy movement.
Bhutto, for her part, was greeted by nearly 200,000 supporters when she returned to Karachi on Oct. 18 after eight years in self-imposed exile, a triumphal homecoming that was shattered by a suicide bombing that left more than 140 people dead.
Bhutto’s message to her followers has been considerably more nuanced than Chaudhry’s, leaving many in Pakistan confused as to whether she is styling herself as a full-fledged opposition leader or still holds some hope of an eventual power-sharing arrangement with Musharraf.
Bhutto, who flew to the capital from Karachi, her home base, said she would not meet with Musharraf while the current authoritarian measures remain in place.
“There will be no talks … in the given circumstances,” she said.
Bhutto told reporters her followers would not sit in the national assembly, which was to reconvene Wednesday. She also said that what originally had been intended as a campaign rally Friday in Rawalpindi instead would be a demonstration.
Thus far, Bhutto and other major opposition leaders have avoided trying to galvanize large street rallies for fear of setting off bloody confrontations with police and paramilitary troops. The police have shown scant restraint in dealing with protesters.
Police clubbed protesting lawyers Tuesday in the central city of Multan. But the clash was far smaller than similar ones a day earlier in several cities.
Musharraf, meanwhile, moved to consolidate his control over what formerly had been an independent-minded judiciary.
A reconstituted nine-member Supreme Court, now made up of loyalists to the Pakistani leader, convened for the first time and threw out a ruling by former justices against Saturday night’s declaration of emergency rule.
Musharraf’s stated reason for declaring an emergency was the Islamic insurgency that has roiled the country for months. In a new push, militants in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday seized a town near the Afghan border, where government troops surrendered without resistance – a familiar pattern of late.
Although the threat from militants is real, Musharraf’s opponents say the declaration of emergency rule was driven by fears that the Supreme Court would invalidate his election to a second presidential term. The newly loyalist court is expected to declare the vote legitimate.