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General
election time State
of police Spring
in New York! Well-knit The
same old politics Deja
vu in Multan
politics Who stands
where in the power arithmetic, especially the main players By Adnan
Adil
Pakistan
Muslim League (Q) has also announced to elect Pervez Musharraf as president
for the second tenure and that too from the sitting assemblies. For last one
week, President Gen Pervez Musharraf has been holding meetings with members
of the provincial assemblies and district nazims. On the other side, the two
main opposition parties, the PPP and the PML(N), are closing their ranks to
sign what they say is a charter of democracy, which will be a rare show of
consensus among main political parties. In
addition to the powerful establishment, the ruling PML and three opposition
parties, the PPP, the PML(N) and the MMA matter the most in the power
arithmetic. Following is a look at these main players. Musharraf
and the PML(Q)
Chaudhry
Shujaat need a strong Pervez Musharraf at his back to win a majority in the
forthcoming elections. His interest also demands Musharraf stays dependent on
his party after the elections. That may be another reason he is anxious to
get Musharraf elected before the elections. After the elections, Musharraf
may join hands with some other party in return of the party's support in his
re-election. This scenario may result in a decline in the significance of
Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain.
Punjab's
Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi had declared last Sunday that the
existing assemblies would re-elect Musharraf as president for the second
term. It indicates that the ruling party is not confident of going into
general elections without Musharraf firmly in place. The
controversy about the second presidential vote from the sitting parliament
may land in the superior courts. If Musharraf finally opts for this, it also
implies that the prospects of a compromise between Musharraf and the two
mainstream parties are dim for the time being. Musharraf's
holding on to two offices may require a constitutional amendment this time
for which a two-thirds majority in the parliament is needed. After the next
elections, it is unlikely that the ruling party and its allies like the MQM,
would make up two-thirds of the parliament. Thus, the ruling party's support
may not be sufficient to keep Musharraf in power and he would look for other
allies. It seems
unlikely that establishment would be able to indulge in massive rigging or
doctoring of results keeping in view the pledges the government has made to
the world. In this
event, Musharraf will have to turn to opposition parties, the PPP and the
PML(N). The MMA had helped him win the first tenure as a president-in-khakis,
but he is said to be under US pressure to distance away from the religious
parties' alliance. He may ignore this pressure and again turn towards the MMA.
If the Jamaat-i-Islami takes a hard line, Musharraf may like to try to woo
the JUI (F) causing a split in the MMA. Musharraf
has the option to hold free and fair elections as promised, let the results
come and afterwards use the establishment's stick to cause defections from
the opposition parties to gain the required number for his re-election. This
scenario seems more plausible than others judging by the past record. Pakistan
People's Party (PPP) The PPP
wants the withdrawal of several corruption cases against its chairperson
Benazir Bhutto and her return to the country before the elections so that she
could lead her party's campaign for the general elections 2007. In the next
elections, the party may suffer due to her absence especially in the Punjab. With its
secular credentials, the PPP is often billed as a natural ally of President
Gen Pervez Musharraf. However, the establishment has a deep-seated dislike
and distrust of the party's chairperson, Ms Benazir Bhutto. Theory is that
Benazir Bhutto has not been able to forget and forgive the execution of her
father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, at the hands of a military regime and thus is
revengeful. It does not seem likely that Musharraf will be able to break out
of this barrier and join hands with Bhutto. Benazir
Bhutto and her husband Asif Zardari are facing a money-laundering case in a
Swiss Court. A magistrate has already decided the case against the two. The
FIA has recently announced a few more arrests of the co-accused in connection
with this case. The verdict against the appeal is likely to be announced this
year. The government is pinning hopes on Swiss court's verdict to sideline Ms
Bhutto. In case she is exonerated from the Swiss case, several corruption
cases are pending against her in the country. In the
next general elections, the party may enter into a seating adjustment with
the PML(N). Pakistan
Muslim League (PML-N) As
compared to PPP, the Muslim League (N) is considered more acceptable to the
establishment. However, the way Musharraf regime has so far dealt with this
party is by isolating former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif -- by causing
defections from his party. In the
last five years with the emergence of pro-Musharraf faction of PML(Q) in
2001, Pakistan Muslim League (N) has faced most defections. Unlike the PPP
with the Bhuttos at the top, the PML-N comprises local bigwigs of national
politics who have a history of changing loyalties. The
advent of drive for the next general elections may again witness massive
defections from the party to the ruling party. Several PML-N leaders are
ready to switch sides, but at the moment the ruling party is hesitant to
accept them because their entry may annoy the local leaders already in the
ruling camp. Shahbaz
Sharif, who formally heads the party as its president, is more acceptable to
the establishment, but he has been unable to disassociate himself from his
big brother, Nawaz Sharif. Nawaz Sharif has, so far, taken a firm stand of
not joining hands with Gen Musharraf. Nawaz
Sharif's leanings towards the Islamic agenda, which manifested during his
rule in the form of 15th constitutional amendment enforcing Islamic law,
casts shadows on him in the present atmosphere. However, the same inclination
endears Nawaz Sharif to the Jamaat-i-Islami, which would make efforts to
enter into an electoral alliance or seating adjustment with the PML-N. This
arrangement could be of value for both urban districts of the Punjab and some
parts of the NWFP. The
PML(N)'s electoral alliance with the PPP may also bring a few extra seats to
the each party because in electoral alliances one party can only transfer a
portion of its voters to the other party's candidates. The MMA The JUI
led by Maulana Fazlur Rehman and the Jamaat-i-Islami led by Qazi Hussain
Ahmed are the two main parties of the six-party alliance, the MMA. The JUI
has its chief minister in the NWFP and shares power with the ruling PML in
Balochistan. The incumbency factor is on work against it. In NWFP, the JUI's
ministers have not earned a good reputation. The
alliance is now heading for what it calls a 'people's movement' against the
government. The Jamaat, in particular, has the potential to bring its workers
on to Islamabad's streets. In the past, however, it has stayed away from
posing any real threat to the military's rule. The coming months will show
whether it intends to launch a serious agitation or is it an MMA's warm-up
exercise for the elections. A split between the JI and the JUI cannot be
completely ruled out. Conclusion The
ruling PML needs a strong Musharraf, as a President-in-khakis to woo voters
in the next general elections. Musharraf may seek a second term as president
from the sitting assemblies triggering constitutional and political
controversies. At the moment, the chances of his compromise with the main
opposition parties, the PPP and the PML(N), are slim and in the run-up to
2007 elections and soon afterwards, the establishment may resort to mass
defections from the opposition parties to strengthen the ruling alliance. At
present, the two main opposition parties, the PPP and the PML(N), have
reached a consensus on a common manifesto for the restoration of democracy,
which is soon going to be signed by their party heads, but they are still to
decide about an electoral alliance or seating adjustment. Unless the three
main opposition groups, the PPP, the PML(N) and the MMA, join hands to put up
a one-to-one fight to the government's candidates, the opposition parties are
not likely to fare well in an election, however free and fair the polling may
be, held under the supervision of a president-in-khakis.
Police
continues to be a danger for public. A recent incident in Karachi reiterates
the threat By Ahmer
Ashraf Summary:
Police suspects a car, follows it and opens fire at the vehicle. It results
in the death of two people and further injuring two persons including a
twelve year old girl. All in the name of suspicion.
More
details: Witnesses at the scene disputed the police claim, saying the police
had beckoned two men on a motorcycle to stop. Instead of stopping, the
motorcyclists sped away. At this, a police mobile van with Madadgar-15
emblazoned on it opened indiscriminate fire. Feroz and Sabiha, who were
passing through the locality in their car, suffered bullet wounds as a
result. Besides, two other passers-by, including a teenaged girl, also got
injured, witnesses said. Iqbal
Dara, the Town Police Officer (TPO) North Nazimabad, denied that the police
mobile van belonged to their town. But it was a police vehicle that opened
fire and claimed lives of two innocent citizens. The question is: if the
police wasn't sure about the culprits, why did they open fire? Police
has continued to be a nuisance for public. It is ironic how a security
service which is there to protect the public haunts them instead. It is
perhaps because of this image that the name Madadgar (helpful) was given to
the police rescue service. But actions speak louder than words. There are
more and more incidents of people complaining of being harassed without
reason. The latest incident at Sakhi Hasan has raised further doubts in
public minds about the reliability of police. The next time you don't stop,
expect a bullet from the mobile! So what
exactly is the policy? Who gives orders as to when the police could open fire
and why? TNS
contacted DIG Operations, Sindh, Mushtaq Shah, who says: "There is no
written policy of opening fire." Although, he does add there are orders
for 'maximum restraint' on opening fire. But is that enough? He goes back to
the incident and regretfully admits that the firing which resulted in the
lives of two Iranians should not have happened. "I feel that the fire
should not have been opened," says the DIG. The DIG comments that the
orders of fire remain with the seniormost police officer on location:
"There are no written laws that they have to wait for an order to open
fire. The discretion rests with whoever is the seniormost officer on the
location." When
inquired if there is a minimum grade of officer who could open fire, the DIG
doesn't specify, hinting that it could even be an SHO. How can the lives of
people be dependent on that one person? Is there any action taken to prevent
more incidents like the March 20 one? Who is going to safeguard the rights of
people? Nobody
seems to have an answer for that except that the lives of people depend on
the judgement of a particular police officer and who knows what's going on in
his mind and when can he open fire under what circumstances. This is a threat
for public safety. Most vehicles avoid police because they don't want to be
stopped and asked for money for no reason. Can the police open fire on those
vehicle too? Some laws certainly need to be passed to avoid the loss of lives
of innocent civilians. Some higher authority must tell the police to be less
trigger-happy than they are right now. The
incompetence of police can also be judged by the number of robberies and
crimes that take place so frequently in the metropolis. Obviously, the police
is too busy harassing the poor public. Saleem,
a worker in a factory located in the Korangi Industrial area comes late from
work and is stopped almost every day by the police. "It is worse for
bikers. They waste your time by threatening you and when they find no reason,
they let you go. Mostly, they want money. If you don't give them the money,
they might book you for some crime you haven't even committed," he says. Quite
often, citizens are stopped under the excuse of routine checking. They prefer
to pay up because they are either harassed or are short of time and don't
want to get into trouble. The DIG responds: "The crime rate of a
particular area, the ground situation and crime pattern determines the
checking procedure in a particular location." Hamza,
who finishes work late has faced problems on his way back home. "They do
their usual talashi (checking). They want to check your original license. If
you have a copy, then they question whether it's genuine or not. And if you
have the license, they want to see bike papers. If you have them, they want
to see something else. Basically they want you to pay up. Do they have a
right to check your license. Isn't this the traffic police job by law?"
he raises another issue. The DIG says: "We have no business checking the
license and car papers. We usually check the car if there is any weapon and
the NIC of the person." About
the rise in police blackmailing incidents, the DIG admits some policemen do
go overboard. "At times, they do that. But we don't ignore them, there
is a whole list of policemen, who are suspended, punished or interrogated for
doing this," defends Mushtaq, citing the low payscale and the
backgrounds of policemen as reasons for doing this to public. Sharffudin
Memon, the CPLC (Citizen Police Liaison Committee) chief, comments on the
major improvement in the confidence of public with the police. But has it
been, really? According to him, cases of mishandling by the police can be
referred to the organisation and then they take care of it. He speaks of how
the crime rates have gone down -- especially ones of kidnapping for ransom
and car lifting. He feels that the synergy between public and police has a
long way to go. "We are trying to educate the police authorities as well
as public," says Sharfuddin, adding that when cases are referred to CPLC
of police torture or illegal police detentions, those officers are punished
or suspended and this is changing the mindset of the police. CPLC has
five offices in Karachi including the main office in the Governor House.
However, it only helps the citizens to a certain extent by covering medical
expenses of a victim of police. The
public, instead of asking police for protection from criminals, needs
protection from the police itself. There is a lot of confidence-building left
to do in order to lessen the fear that remains in public. And when DIG,
Mushtaq Shah comments: "Public should not take the law in their
hand," I wonder whether they have the right to misuse the power that
they have been given.
Taal
Matol By Shoaib
Hashmi When we
were young, a gentleman named Tom Lehrer taught maths at Harvard University,
and in his spare time wrote and sang nutty songs, one of which went: "Spring
is here... A-Spring is here. Life is
skittles, and life is beer, I think
the loveliest time of the year Is the
Spring. I do. Don't you? Course you do! But
there's one thing that makes Spring complete for me, And
makes every Sunday a treat for me: All the
world seems in tune, on a Spring afternoon' When
we're Poisoning pigeons in the Park..."! That
final ambition is a bit dicey in these insecure times but all the rest is
there; New York is in the full bloom of Spring, and it is glorious! We who
come from the tropics instinctively think of the cold north in muted colours.
Either we have been dumb, or nature has changed since we last knew her. This
place is rife with the sharpest most blazing colours I thought existed only
in poster colour jars. There is a little bush with huge bunches of flowers
such a wild shade of pink you can barely look at it; and there are trees
laden with pink and white blossoms which should be cherry and apple according
to the old time song, but my host won't let me stop and check. I get my own
back by telling him the mauve ones are 'Kachnaar' which is a vegetable back
home. And
while we are at it, I will also tell you the most amazing way to get to New
York: It is ensconced in the jump seat in the cockpit of a brand new 777!
Yup! The captain was an old student, and that is the best kind of captain
there is. He wasn't doing much flying as I could see, just pushing the
occasional button on the dozens of consoles in front and watching the
coloured pictures on screens change. But then my own previous experience of
flying was in a pre-World-War II Tiger Moth made of strips of wood and canvas
held together with spit and fervent prayers, and the only dial was a floating
arrow which said if you were going up or down! Nowadays,
as most people try to imitate me and fly in, even if it is only in a common
or garden economy seat and never make it into the cockpit, the Statue of
Liberty is not the great landmark they notice first. It is the Lincoln Centre
and last time we couldn't even see that because the place was chockfull of
gaping people, all gaping at a naked David Blaine! That's the 'street
magician' you must have caught sight of while surfing who blows the mind
because in the middle of an empty street, he levitates! In the
midst of oodles of people and TV cameras and cables and what not there were
signs saying 'D Blaine Drowned Alive'. And there he was, in his Scuba gear
immersed in water in this huge glass bowl... and he'd been there Seven Days!
The answer to the first question that springs to mind -- it must be how the
astronauts do it, in the same suit for months which takes care of all their
worldly needs! Anyway
he was busy creating a new world record for staying underwater continuously,
and he did; we watched him coming out on live TV the same evening, and it
sort of summed up the essence of civilization in our times, which instant
thrills, even if you have to kill yourself for it! And all this was right in
the middle of the premier opera house, concert hall and the home of the City
Ballet. Up civilization!
The story
of American women who are knitting mittens for children in the quake-hit
areas of Pakistan By
Muhammad Badar Alam
When she
saw images of Pakistani children "making fists of their bare hands to
keep their fingers a little warmer", she tells The News on Sunday via
e-mail from her home in the city of Bozeman in Montana. It was
in early 2006 that she first saw these children in "a news story on the
Lehrer News Hour (aired by America's Public Broadcasting Service) which was
filmed by a British crew who hiked in January for 4 days into a village that
had been destroyed by the earthquake...to see how the people who survived the
quake were faring during the winter". The images were very upsetting for
her and continued to haunt her hours after she had seen them on a cold snowy
evening. "In the morning I woke with this image of their cold little
fists still in my head...my heart went out to them...It made me want to
help." Skeptical
of whether her little contribution to the cause of those children will make
it to the right people if delivered through conventional means of some
non-government organisation, she thought of something different. "I
wanted to knit them mittens more than I wanted to send a cheque to some
organisation," she writes to TNS.
Local
press also got the wind of the story somehow and in no time Linda and her
knitting initiative was in the news all over her state. "A story in my
local paper was picked up by other newspapers and radio stations in
Montana," says Linda, 58, who splits her time in running a guiding
business in America's Yellowstone National Park, controlling the spread of
invasive plant species around the Yellowstone ecosystem and working for the
State Department as a facilitator of its International Visitors Leadership
Programme. By
making its way to local and state media, the word about the mittens spread
like anything. "I've had calls from knitters in other towns in
Montana." Linda's
decision to make her own little contribution to the alleviation of the
sufferings of the children in the earthquake-hit areas has now assumed a
reasonable size in her home state. "Some people are knitting several
pairs. In September (2006), we will send as many as we have collected." Linda
was born and raised in California where she worked for the University of
California before moving to Montana "because I wanted to be near
Yellowstone National Park which over nearly 30 summers has come to feel like
my real home, my spiritual home". After all these years close to where
she always wanted to be, she is now having second thoughts. "Now, having
been moved to knit for children half way round the world, I'm thinking it may
be time to leave Yellowstone for a while to see the mountains of Pakistan and
meet the people. Maybe I could even meet some of the kids who will wear these
mittens." But
knitting alone cannot ensure that this dream of her comes true. They require
to be sent where they are intended for. It's where her friend and fellow
knitter Cindy Owings comes in handy. "Linda
came up with the project idea and I came up with contacts in Pakistan who
might be able to deliver the mittens directly without going through a large
aid (organisation) or a government organisation. We want to have the mittens
go directly from our own hands to the hands of the receiver," says
Cindy, now retired from her business of designing and manufacturing and
living "in a rural mountainous river valley in southwest Montana where I
garden, knit, hike, ski, canoe and bird watch." Cindy,
60, has "worked in Lahore consulting on a textile project at the Family
Welfare Cooperative Society and in Bangladesh in a job creation project on
three occasions" and, therefore, has "contacts in the region"
which helped the two women get in touch with a rotary club in Islamabad. Their
contact person in Islamabad is a local architect named Jehangir Khan Sherpao,
who is also a former president of Rotary Club, Islamabad (Metropolitan) and
is actively engaged in quake rehabilitation. But Cindy's e-mail to him did
not directly land in his Inbox. "It was my friend Imran Shauket in
Bangladesh whose wife Maureen works for USAID who forwarded Cindy Owing's
email about wanting to knit mittens," he tells TNS in an e-mail message.
"They were concerned about how to get the mittens distributed and I
volunteered (rotary club's) services." Jehangir
also told the knitters that weather in Pakistan had changed to hot, unlike
the United States which is still cold in some places, especially Montana.
"However we concluded that it gave them more time and the mittens could
be distributed for next cold season." The
American knitters may have missed the mark on weather in Pakistan but
certainly they are dot on when it comes to thinking clearly about how to help
the country's quake victims. With their hearts in the right place, they are
certain to make some difference to how some children in the quake-hit areas
spend their next winter.
Behind
the headlines By Dr
Mehdi Hasan General
Pervez Musharraf is only a step away from General Ayub Khan's political
tradition -- by declaring himself president of the bunch of MNAs, MPAs and
Nazims who call themselves Pakistan Muslim League. General Ayub Khan was made
president of one faction of Pakistan Muslim League in 1962. But he wasn't new
to politics. He had earlier been inducted into the federal cabinet by
Governor General Malik Ghulam Mohammad, a civil servant, back in 1954 when he
was C-in-C of Pakistan Army. A federal minister in uniform was not asked to
doff his uniform before entering politics even then. Taking
out another leaf from Ayub Khan's political journal, Musharraf must accept
the presidentship of the ruling PML. Almost all federal and provincial
ministers from Punjab would be too happy with the arrangement and that would
also take care of the problem of anti-Shujaat campaign within the ruling
alliance. The cracks in the ruling alliance started appearing after the
announcement of the expected general elections next year. The
question of holding a fair and transparent election had acquired importance
after the recent South Asian visit of President Bush -- and the consequent
shift in the US policy towards Pakistan, India and Afghanistan. Matters
became worse to an extent where Musharraf had to snub the Afghan president
publicly. Thereafter the US policymakers started talking about the future of
democracy in Pakistan. The
international focus on the transparency and fairness of the next general
elections, coupled with the visible change in the US priorities regarding
South-Asia, have unnerved the ruling alliance which is rightly concerned
about its political future. The conditions at the time of 2002 elections were
entirely different. General Pervez Musharraf's services and cooperation of
Pakistani forces were a strategic requirement of the US against Taliban and
Afghanistan-based Al-Qaeda outfits -- while the US was busy fighting, a lost
war in Iraq. Since
the ruling party is in power because of General Musharraf rather than the
other way round, it is logical that the president uses his influence to try
to repair the patchwork in the ruling alliance which is necessary for his
political future after 2007. General
Pervez Musharraf is not entirely dependent on PML(Q) for next political term.
He has kept other options open. Speculations about some kind of deal with the
Pakistan People's Party have made PML(Q) leaders uneasy. It is possible that
such reports are deliberately 'leaked' to the 'investigative journalists' to
discipline the ruling alliance, a combination of persons belonging to various
shades of political and personal interest. Former
prime minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali, Chief Minister of Sindh Arbab Ghulam
Rahim, Pir Pagaro, Hamid Nasir Chattha, Mian Manzoor Wattoo, besides a
forward block consisting of more than ten MNAs and MPAs led by Amjad Farooq,
are the main opponents of Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain. Jamali went so far to
announce his own candidature when elections in the party were planned.
General Musharraf declared that Chaudhry Shujaat would remain the chief of
the ruling party. If it
was General's recipe for solving the intra-party dispute, it would probably
not work now as top position of the party and chief ministership of the
largest province in the same family was not acceptable to many component
groups of the ruling party. The smaller provinces, especially Sindh and
Balochistan, complain that both the major offices of president and the
secretary general have been given to Punjab making other areas politically
subservient to Punjab. General
Musharraf's strategy for his re-election as president of Pakistan with or
without uniform was possible only if he could get overwhelming support from
Punjab. Sindh is politically controlled by the PPP and MQM. The Pakistan
People's Party is at present in the opposition while MQM, though an important
coalition partner but not as dependable as the disorganised politicians from
Punjab were considered reliable by the establishment. If the General's
advisors were successful in carving out a deal with the PPP, the political
turncoats from Punjab would be pushed to the back seat. The
bigwigs of the ruling party, aware of their vulnerability, have expressed
their reservations about the reported contacts with the PPP. As earlier said,
for General Musharraf the easy way out could be to become president of the
ruling party himself before the general elections in 2007.
Another
village, another girl, and a more or less similar story... By Nadeem
Shah
Earlier,
talking to TNS at the Women's Jail, Sadia declared that she was legally
married to Saeed Ahmed while an FIR lodged by her father implicated the two
in a zina case. "I am being punished for marrying a poor man and the
influential landlords want to kill us. Please help us." According
to the couple's story, Sadia, daughter of Muhammad Shafi Sandhal, a landlord
of mauza Lothar in Multan, had developed an affair with Saeed Ahmed of the
pawli or weaver clan. After the Sandhal family rejected a marriage between
the two, Sadia and Saeed eloped. They got married in a court in Rahimyar Khan
on September 14, 2004 and settled in a rented house in the city. A month ago
Sadia's father-in-law, Sher Muhammad, received an offer of reconciliation
from the Sandhal family and called the couple over to Lothar. The couple came
and attended a village council where Sadia announced her marriage with Saeed
Ahmed. This irritated Sadia's family who approached the police for the arrest
of couple along with a sister and brother of Saeed -- Altaf and Shahnaz. The
accused moved a bail application against what they called 'a baseless case'
of abduction under the Zina Ordinance. Altaf and Shahnaz were granted bail
while Sadia and Saeed were sent to jail. Sadia said: "Saeed Ahmed is my
husband and the father of my son Muhammad Osman and the police FIR is
absolutely baseless." Her father-in-law Sher Muhammad told this scribe
that jail authorities did not allow him or any other member of his family a
meeting with Sadia and her son in violation of their legal right. "The
Sandhal lords are determined to kill Sadia, Saeed and their child. They have
warned us that only a divorce can save Sadia," says Altaf. According
to Sher Muhammad's account, Sadia was subjected to torture during the four
days in the police lock-up and she had a miscarriage. This was despite the
fact that they had produced legal documents proving the marriage. "The
Sandhals requested a reconciliation one month ago and I called the couple to
the village where police held them under a completely false case. The police
did not hear us properly nor gave us any relief," said Sher Muhammad.
"Sadia stands with us but the police is pressurising her for a
divorce." "The
police have turned a legal marriage into a case of abduction and zina,"
said Sadia's lawyer, Syed Irfan Haider Shamsi. Zakir
Gujjar, SHO Budhlah Sant Police Station, denied the charge. He said the
couple were sent to jail after they failed to produce legal documents proving
their marriage. He said the police even gave them an opportunity to settle
the matter in a mosque. He did not agree that the police had misused their
authority. Mehr
Zamir Hussein Sandhal, counsel for Sandhals, gave the story another twist
when he said Sadia was already married to a cousin of hers. She had not
accepted this marriage and she had returned to her parents in the village. However,
the FIR or the police investigation did not mention that she was already
married, only the fact that she was around 14.
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With
the next general elections due in October 2007, the national politics is
heating up. Opposition leaders are speculating that the government may give a
surprise by announcing the elections this year. The ruling PML leaders,
however, say the general elections may be postponed for a few months till
2008.
As
the next general elections to be held in 2007 are coming close, ruling PML
President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain's survival as a power broker is at stake.
The general elections and Musharraf's completion of tenure as president are
coinciding. Musharraf is also under a constitutional obligation to leave the
office of army chief after 2007. This causes uncertainty and weakens the
ruling party's position in the next general elections.
The
ruling PML leadership has come up with controversial proposals. One, the
party wants Musharraf to get elected as president for the second term from
the sitting parliament. The opposition says the constitution does not allow
this and that only the new parliament can do so. Two, the party wants
Musharraf to retain the two offices of president and military chief beyond
2007. Again, the opposition says the constitution does not allow this. 
Details:
On an evening in Karachi, there was yet another incident in the city -- of
terrorism and shootout. Only this time the terrorists didn't open fire, the
police did, and before any resistance. Two Iranian-origin Pakistanis --
brother and sister -- were shot dead and two others wounded as police opened
fire "while in pursuit of some fleeing suspects" near Sakhi Hasan,
North Nazimabad, on March 20. The victims of police firing were rushed to the
Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where the dead were identified as Feroz and Sabiha.
Among the injured was a 13-year-old girl, identified as Afsana. An
unidentified, 55-year-old, man left the hospital quietly without receiving
medical treatment.
Linda
Wallace can be forgiven for knitting mittens for children in Pakistan's
earthquake-hit areas as stories about a searing sun and a severely hot
weather clog Pakistani press. Coming from Montana, a northwestern state in
the United States along the Canadian border, she may not realise why the
story of her mittens may appear misplaced to many a Pakistani reader as a hot
May harkens even hotter June. But she very well understands what cold can do
to a not properly wrapped human body. 
Once
Linda decided what she had wanted to do, she went about finding how to go
about it. "I thought I could get other knitters to participate and we
could knit at least 100 pair of mittens right here in Bozeman. I asked my
friend Cindy Owings if she thought this was a silly idea. She loved it and
helped me get the project going," is how the whole thing got started. As
a follow-up on that, she "went to the local knitting shops (in Bozeman)
and in Livingston, a town 25 miles away. They all agreed to be collection
points for the mittens. Then in a newspaper from a town 90 miles south of
Bozeman, I read about a knitting group that meets in the local library. I
contacted them and they are participating (in the project) too." 
Sadia
Batool awaits justice at Multan Women's Jail along with her nine month old
son, Muhammad Osman. The additional district and sessions judge had summoned
Sadia and Saeed Ahmed, the man she claims to have married, to his court on
May 8. However, the authorities only produced Saeed who is being kept in the
District Jail Multan. The case was adjourned till May 17.