Anyone know what's happening in Pakistan?

[CaptainChewbacca]

I went away for a weekend, and when I came back Musharraf had declared martial law and started jailing media figures and intellectuals, so much so he's run out of jail space.

Anyone know what's going on?

[Eulogy]

Apparently, he's eing like a whiny toddler who doesn't want to let go of his security blanket. He wants to be dictator.

[Stuart]

I went away for a weekend, and when I came back Musharraf had declared martial law and started jailing media figures and intellectuals, so much so he's run out of jail space. Anyone know what's going on?

He's thrown the Supreme Court into jail, had all the lawyers arrested and beaten up and is presently introducing martial law.

There are also rumors just starting to circulate that he's been arrested himself. No confirmation on that yet.

[K. A. Pital]

Nothing is "going on". Musharraf basically arrested opposition leaders, the more radical went to jail, some under house arest, re-staffed the courts and assembly and now the parliamentary elections will run. Or that's at least what I understood from the news.

[Dartzap]

Nothing is "going on". Musharraf basically arrested opposition leaders, the more radical went to jail, some under house arest, re-staffed the courts and assembly and now the parliamentary elections will run. Or that's at least what I understood from the news.

To quote someone from anouther forum :"He essentially led a coup against his own regime!" quite remarkable, really

To quote the Beeb

Pakistan's prime minister says national elections will be held as scheduled, despite President Pervez Musharraf's declaration of emergency rule.

Elections are due by mid-January, but there were fears they might be abandoned because of the crisis.

Police have broken up street protests and hundreds of lawyers and opposition activists have been arrested.

The US said it was "deeply disturbed" by events and urged Gen Musharraf to return to civilian rule.

The Pakistani president said he had declared the emergency to stop the country "committing suicide", because the country was in a crisis caused by militant violence and an unruly judiciary.

Critics, however, believe Gen Musharraf was acting to pre-empt a judgment by the Supreme Court on whether his re-election last month was legal.

Election timetable

The government had suggested parliamentary polls could be delayed by up to a year.

But Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said on Monday that: "The next general elections will be held according to the schedule."

Attorney-General Malik Abdul Qayyum was more specific.

"It has been decided there will be no delay in the election and by 15 November these assemblies will be dissolved and the election will be held within the next 60 days," he told Reuters news agency.

Pakistan had come under heavy international pressure after Gen Musharraf imposed emergency rule on Saturday.

"We believe that the best path for Pakistan is to quickly return to a constitutional path and then to hold elections," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said during a visit to the Middle East.

She urged Gen Musharraf to fulfil his pledge to step down as head of the army and return the country to civilian rule.

But on Monday, the general gave his clearest indication yet that he was unlikely to give up his military post soon, even though he had been scheduled to do so this month.

He told foreign diplomats in Islamabad that he would give up his military post "once we correct these pillars in judiciary and the executive and the parliament", according to comments broadcast on state-run television.

'Further steps'

The US has suspended defence co-operation talks with Pakistan set for this week and says it will review its multi-billion dollar aid programme.

The UK, another major donor, says it is examining whether the emergency will affect its aid to Pakistan.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the announcement that elections would go ahead was welcome, but it must be accompanied by civilian rule and political freedoms.

The Netherlands became the first country to suspend aid, and the EU said its members were considering "possible further steps".

In Lahore on Monday an estimated 2,000 lawyers congregated to stage a rally protesting at the dismissal of top judges and restrictions on the judiciary, but several were reported wounded when police waded in with tear gas and baton charges.

Lawyers chanting anti-Musharraf slogans at a demonstration in Karachi were dragged off into police vans, says the BBC's M Ilyas Khan.

Demonstrations were also broken up in Rawalpindi.

House arrest

Lawyers' associations across the country said they were calling three days of protests and boycotts of courts.

Media reports, citing police and interior ministry sources, said some 1,500 people had been arrested in the past 48 hours, while many top judges were effectively under house arrest.

The Islamic party Jamaat-e-Islami was among the groups targeted.

Its leader, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, was under arrest, as were hundreds of members, the party said.

Information Minister Tariq Azim called those figures an exaggeration.

He told the BBC that it was up to protesters to remain calm, or deal with the consequences.

"If people take the law into their [own] hands, obviously, they have to be dealt with," he told the World Today.

Pakistani TV news channels, which have huge audiences, are being prevented from broadcasting within the country, and at least one newspaper press was raided by police.

[CJvR]

Seems to me like he and Bhutto have decided on MADing each other so that the psyco fundies have an easier time taking over the place.

[Keevan_Colton]

Seems to me like he and Bhutto have decided on MADing each other so that the psyco fundies have an easier time taking over the place.

Excuse me, but what? Bhutto is back after working out an arrangement with Musharraf. The fact is the judges are generally leaning towards the religious fuckwit end of the scale there...along with the intelligence services (who are seriously connected with the fucking Taliban...and were instrumental in creating it...but hey...)

It's currently Musharraf and Co. vs. the Fundies, and Bhutto is on the sidelines for this one.

[Kanastrous]

Yesterday SecDef Gates made noises about Musharraf's naughtyness, etc, then finished by saying that this wouldn't actually affect our 'defense relationship.'

[Medic]

He looked so nice on The Daily Show though!

What are the chances that the short- or long-term blowback from his heavy handedness WON'T take on a religious nature?

I also wonder if we'd bother trying to shoot down missiles between India and Pakistan if that happened or just do our best to make them both back down and throw our hands in the air if it did blow up? About all we could realistically use at this point would be a non-substantial number of SM-3's.
In any event, hopefully cooler heads prevail, especially if Muscharraf is overthrown.

[Keevan_Colton]

You do realize one of the big reasons he gets shit domestically is for helping the US...right?

[Medic]

You do realize one of the big reasons he gets shit domestically is for helping the US...right?

Are you asking me? Yeah, I am, I'm just wondering what our actions would be in a worst-case scenario wherein there's either WORSE leadership or NO leadership and God-knows-who has control of the nation's nuclear arsenal. How many forces more we'd move into the area, if we'd consider strikes on any known weapon sites, if we'd shoot down any actual exchange between Pakistan and [NATION X].

Shep's raised the notion that Muscharraf is the only one keeping the military in line, it seems like his overthrow if it happened is a bad thing fundamentally just because it's a nuclear-armed country.

[Keevan_Colton]

The thing is the military is still on side with him. The protests are small, and mostly made up of lawyers...which means not many people would cry if the military opened up on them...

But the question was directed to CvJR and Kant among others.

[Medic]

The thing is the military is still on side with him. The protests are small, and mostly made up of lawyers...which means not many people would cry if the military opened up on them...

But the question was directed to CvJR and Kant among others.

Oh, okay.

BTW, was the lawyer uprising photo thread a while back from Pakistan? God that shit was ... weird looking. And it was (from March this year, control+f "Pakistan"). << NSFW ffs, the blog is called "Riot Porn;" there's general riot pictures, mooning, etc.

[Sea Skimmer]

I also wonder if we'd bother trying to shoot down missiles between India and Pakistan if that happened or just do our best to make them both back down and throw our hands in the air if it did blow up? About all we could realistically use at this point would be a non-substantial number of SM-3's.
In any event, hopefully cooler heads prevail, especially if Muscharraf is overthrown.

Throwing back our hands is overwhelmingly the best option, and SM-3 doesn’t have the cross range capability to defend nations that big. The following tiny ass image illustrates the size and location of the area it defends relative to ship location, and the launch area of the enemy missile, in this case northern North Korea.



Some of the rivers in the area might be deep enough for a Ticonderoga to cruise up… but that would be insanity at work.

[K. A. Pital]

The "tightening screws" could result in Islamic Revolution. I thought the US learned something from their Iran debacle with "Operation Ajax" monarchist coup, the Shah and his following overthrow by islamists who could be considered fuckwits by any measure of events.

[Sarevok]

The scary thing is islamists parties are in power at 2 provinces out of 4 provinces already. If they can gain command of military stationed there they will have some real teeth to back up their crazy speeches. The other factions, namely the non religious parties dont have the firepower the islamists already posses in their fanatic militia.The others may have public support or political influence but they will just get slaughtered if things turn ugly.