MOSABJA
Junior Member
Islamabad and other Pakistani cities have seen violent confrontations in recent days between security forces and lawyers, opposition political activists, and ordinary Pakistanis opposing the attempt of the country’sUS-backed military strongman, General Pervez Musharraf, to fire the head of the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.
The Musharraf regime is enveloped by multiple crises. While the Bush administration is demanding that Islamabad do more to crush the Taliban and expects Pakistan to be on-side in any US military action against its western neighbor Iran, popular opposition to Musharraf’s complicity in US aggression is mounting. According to the findings of a recent poll conducted by Gallup Pakistan, 83 percent of Pakistanis say that in the conflict between America and Taliban, their sympathies are with the Taliban and 75 percent are opposed to the US’s use of Pakistani air bases.
Just a day before his removal, the chief justice heard a case related to “forced disappearances” of persons whom the authorities suspect of ties to Islamacist terrorist groups and expressed strong disappointment over the government’s failure to locate the whereabouts of the disappeared. Hundreds of people have reputedly been illegally abducted by shadowy security forces, held without trial, and tortured.
His decision on March 9 to suspend the Supreme Court’s chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, on allegations of misconduct has unleashed a crisis that has left his regime struggling to survive as it faces a countrywide pro-democracy movement, with Chaudhry becoming a touchstone for those who want to see an end to military rule.
"Go Musharraf Go!" shouted the thousands gathered outside the Pakistan Supreme Court building in the nation’s capital, Islamabad, last Saturday night.
The Musharraf regime is enveloped by multiple crises. While the Bush administration is demanding that Islamabad do more to crush the Taliban and expects Pakistan to be on-side in any US military action against its western neighbor Iran, popular opposition to Musharraf’s complicity in US aggression is mounting. According to the findings of a recent poll conducted by Gallup Pakistan, 83 percent of Pakistanis say that in the conflict between America and Taliban, their sympathies are with the Taliban and 75 percent are opposed to the US’s use of Pakistani air bases.
Just a day before his removal, the chief justice heard a case related to “forced disappearances” of persons whom the authorities suspect of ties to Islamacist terrorist groups and expressed strong disappointment over the government’s failure to locate the whereabouts of the disappeared. Hundreds of people have reputedly been illegally abducted by shadowy security forces, held without trial, and tortured.
His decision on March 9 to suspend the Supreme Court’s chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, on allegations of misconduct has unleashed a crisis that has left his regime struggling to survive as it faces a countrywide pro-democracy movement, with Chaudhry becoming a touchstone for those who want to see an end to military rule.
"Go Musharraf Go!" shouted the thousands gathered outside the Pakistan Supreme Court building in the nation’s capital, Islamabad, last Saturday night.