"Pakistan officials free more dissidents; Musharraf ready to quit as army chief, aide says" by Munir Ahmad/Associated Press November 22, 2007
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The government freed more jailed political activists yesterday. Law Minister Afzal Hayder announced on state television that the government had released 5,634 lawyers and political party members. He said 623 people remained in custody, but that they would be let go soon.
Those freed included Imran Khan, a former cricket star who has become a firebrand in the opposition to Musharraf's rule. Khan said he would continue a hunger strike begun in custody and boycott the election in hopes of forcing Musharraf to give up all power.
Khan told reporters: "Musharraf is staging a drama to deceive America and the West whom he scared that without him the nuclear bomb will get into extremist hands."
Despite the conciliatory moves from the government, police officers clubbed dozens of journalists yesterday during street protests in Faisalabad and Quetta against media restrictions imposed by emergency rule. The protesters chanted "Musharraf, we do not accept your laws" and "Long live the freedom of journalism."
Musharraf justified emergency rule by citing the escalating danger posed by Islamic extremists. Yesterday, the army reported killing some 65 militants in a northern valley, bringing to more than 200 the number of fighters slain there in a week. The militants dispute the figures."
Then why aren't you reporting more on the war, shitters, rather than the poitical bric-a-crap?
"Did Pakistan Ease Rule? A Little Test Says No" by JANE PERLEZ
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 21 -- As the pair drove down Constitution Avenue, the broad boulevard of the capital, five men in civilian clothes stopped their car and pulled Athar Minallah, a young lawyer, out.
In short order Mr. Minallah, a member of the cabinet of Gen. Pervez Musharraf in the early years of his presidency but now an energetic organizer of lawyers’ protests, was arrested.
“I asked them to produce an order for arrest,” said Wajihuddin Ahmed, a former Supreme Court justice, describing the scene with the plainclothes officers. “They didn’t produce any order. I said this is not proper. But Athar said: ‘If they want to take me, let them take me.’”
Mr. Minallah was pushed into a police van and hauled off. Today the most potent critics of General Musharraf remain in jail or under house arrest. These include the dismissed chief justice of the Supreme Court, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, as well as the chairman of the Supreme Court bar association, Aitzaz Ahsan, and the leaders of some of the main political parties.
And Bush says Musharaff is a democrat? Shudder!
Mr. Ahmed and Mr. Minallah were intent on showing that even though the government announced Tuesday that 3,416 detainees had been released, this was probably not the case, and that Mr. Chaudhry, in particular, remained under house arrest. The government said 2,000 remained in detention.
In the other article, they said about 600! WTF?!
“None of these things would happen without a wink from the United States administration,” Mr. Ahmed said.
Smart man!
On Wednesday night, Mr. Minallah’s wife, Ghazala Minallah, said she had been told that her husband was in the central jail in Rawalpindi, where Mr. Ahsan, the leader of the lawyers’ movement, is being held.
It was a relief, she said, to know where he was because people arrested by plainclothes officers were often taken to unknown jails. “I’m going to try and take some blankets and comfortable clothes,” she said."
Nothing about the war we are losing, huh, Times?
They really do print only that which the government tells them to!
Pffffffftttttt!
