Pakistan's prime minister has warned that “dictatorship” is threatening the country’s newly restored democracy, as mounting unrest appears to be revitalizing the allies of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.
An outburst of violence on Wednesday in Karachi that left 10 people dead has made it clear that the new government’s honeymoon is already over. Opponents of the president swept to power in February parliamentary elections.
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said his government would not allow the sacrifice of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto Bhutto for the cause of democracy to be “compromised at the behest of dictatorship, conspiracy and violence.”
Thousands of police and paramilitary troops patrolled Karachi yesterday.
City police chief Niaz Siddiqi said 20,000 security forces were deployed to patrol the streets, check vehicles and guard courthouses, schools and markets in Karachi, which was peaceful early yesterday.
Police arrested three armed men in connection with the unrest late on Wednesday, he said.
Rashid Rizvi, a senior attorney, said lawyers planned to boycott court proceedings in Sindh Province to protest the violence. Karachi is the capital of Sindh.
The unrest was the most serious to buffet Pakistan’s new government as it prepared to assail the powers of Musharraf.
The violence began when lawyers affiliated with the Mutahida Qaumi Movement, an ethnic-based political party that was part of the previous government, held a demonstration on Wednesday afternoon outside Karachi’s main courts complex. They were protesting an assault on a former Cabinet minister the previous day.
Police and witnesses said other lawyers leaving a bar association meeting got involved in a scuffle with the protesters.
Minutes later, men in civilian clothes began shooting, looting and torching cars, witnesses said.
An office block near the courts was set ablaze and six charred bodies, including at least one attorney, were found on the sixth floor.
Police and hospital officials said a paramedic and a pedestrian were killed by gunfire, and that the injured included a seven-year-old child with a bullet wound to the head.
A bus driver who was shot and a lawyer injured in the clashes died later in hospital.
Rizvi, secretary-general of the Sindh High Court Bar Association, denied the unrest was triggered by a clash between lawyers’ groups.
“A group of goons attacked the lawyers. Everybody knows who these people are,” he said. “Nobody can suppress our struggle for the restoration of the judges and the judiciary.”
Gilani called on “all political forces to ensure peace and harmony in the metropolitan city in order to support political stability,” according to a statement from his office.
But the incident could set back his coalition’s effort to woo political rivals and cement Pakistan’s return to democracy after years of military rule.
Karachi has a history of violent political turf wars as well as a rich cast of armed criminal and Islamist groups. Bhutto survived a suicide attack there in October only to be assassinated two months later in Rawalpindi.
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
Hundreds of people in rainbow colors gathered on Saturday in South Africa’s tourist magnet Cape Town to honor the world’s first openly gay imam, who was killed last month. Muhsin Hendricks, who ran a mosque for marginalized Muslims, was shot dead last month near the southern city of Gqeberha. “I was heartbroken. I think it’s sad especially how far we’ve come, considering how progressive South Africa has been,” attendee Keisha Jensen said. Led by motorcycle riders, the mostly young crowd walked through the streets of the coastal city, some waving placards emblazoned with Hendricks’s image and reading: “#JUSTICEFORMUHSIN.” No arrest
RSS