At around 5 pm all the TV news channels were taken off the air. This meant
'emergency declared' - soon confirmed. We were at the close of a meeting in
Karachi to discuss the Citizens Charter, and sent out a press release (below)
incorporating the info we had - Judges Colony in Islamabad sealed; ALL TV news
channels taken off air; judges asked to take a new oath.

Since then, these updates have come in: Judges were asked to take a new oath
(eight had refused) under a PCO (provisional constitional order); Supreme Court
bench headed by the CJ set aside the PCO; Army entered Supreme Court where Bar
was in session & 'escorted' the CJ out; CJ has been terminated. Aitzaz Ahsan
arrested. Constitution suspended. Mush is supposed to address the nation 'some
time this evening' according to PTV, the only news channel now working.
According to another report 18 out of 28 Sindh High Court judge have been
'sacked'.

Message from Farooq Sulehria of the Labour Party Pakistan: "Though the regime is
likely to use Taliban-occupation of certain districts as a pretext it is most
likely that emergency is imposed to pre-empt a court ruling against Mushraaf's
re-election. Emergency means that all basic democratic rights will be suspended
while courts would have their powers curtailed. Pakistan has been in grip of
political crisis and regime was facing growing mass resentment. This emergency
is a desperate attempt to cling to power."

beena

PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE PUBLICATION

Lift emergency, restore democracy, demands citizens'  group

KARACHI, Nov 3, 2007: Participants at a meeting of concerned citizens
held to discuss a citizens' charter for democracy expressed outrage at
the imposition of emergency. They condemned it as an unjustified step
and and demanded that it be lifted with immediate effect.

The group opposed the extreme measures being taken in the name of
emergency, including the oath that judges have been asked to take, the
Judges' Colony in Islamabad being sealed off and the television
channels being taken off air. The meeting, attended by various
concerned citizens from different sectors of society, termed the
imposition of emergency as part of the intimidating tactics being used
to pressurise the judiciary in light of the forthcoming judgement on
the presidential elections.

The group has resolved to join the lawyers and other citizens
demanding the lifting of emergency, and holding of free and fair
elections under an interim government. The meeting included members of
Pur Aman Karachi (Uzma Noorani of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan,
Anis Haroon of Aurat Foundation, and artist & curator Niilofur
Farrukh) besides several other citizens including businessman Nadeem
Khalid, consultant Naeem Sadiq, Asad Umar from the corporate sector,
political science professor Sahar Shafqat, human rights lawyer Abira
Ashfaq, educationist Tahseen Hussain, student Haya Hussain, blogger
Awab Alvi, and journalists, Shahid Husain and Beena Sarwar.

There is widespread outrage at the emergency, and a feeling of deja vu for those
of us who remember the Zia years. 'He's done this to
keep himself in power' is the general feeling (no pun intended), expressed by
our chowkidar, a young fellow who had not been able to hear the news because all
the radio channels were also blocked, including BBC.

There are likely to be several demonstrations all over the country
(some people in Karachi are meeting at 3 pm), but of course the real
numbers will only come out if BB gives a call. And Nawaz Sharif
apparently has said he will support her in the fight against the
emergency, so the PML-N should come out too.

Despite rumours that she was heading to Pakistan to take over as
caretaker Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto has taken a strong stand
against the emergency rule. She made a statement while still in Dubai
and flew back this evening, landing at Karachi airport around 9 pm.
There were reports that she was being pressurised to go back which
she refused, challenging them to arrest her. She reached Bilawal
House around 12.10 pm - with her own security, not police escort.

Interestingly, this was just about the time that Musharraf made his
address to the nation (an hour later than scheduled) - wearing a
sherwani this time rather than a suit & tie. Brought back memories of
Zia's sacking of Junejo (three months later Zia was gone). This time
the PM remains in office, but the CJ has been sacked.

Mush made no mention of elections - but implied that they would not
be held when he said that the governors, Chief Ministers and
assemblies would continue to function. I loved his comment about
allowing the media to function, and all the channels that have been
allowed to go on air. In 1999 when he took over, he said, 'there was
only PTV'. Well today too, there was only PTV, because the cable
operators had been directed to take all the news channels (including
CNN & BBC) off the air. Apparently this directive did not work in
Lyari (strong PPP constituency in Karachi). Details of his speech on
geo.tv & dawn.com

We went to see what was happening at Bilawal House about 1 am. There
was hardly any police around, and just a few dozen men milling around
outside Bilawal house. She was addressing a press conference inside
with about 60 journalists. According to a news report (Jang) she said
the emergency was basically martial law & the people are fully aware
and will resist it; it had been imposed as a preemptive measure
against the expected court judgement (against Musharraf as
president). She added that this will increase extremism & that
arresting the judges will weaken the legal system. She demanded an
immediate lifting of the emergency and the restoration of the
Constitution.

On Friday I filed a story for IPS about 'judicial activism' and its
impact on Pakistan's political situation - but they couldn't carry it
today and I had to update it today - http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?
idnews=39917 (text below).

On the IPS website I came across this excellent report about the
judiciary being freed from the executive in Bangladesh this past
Thursday - http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39901

We could also learn a few lessons from the people's movement in
Nepal...

beena

POLITICS-PAKISTAN: 'Judicial Activism' Triggered Emergency
Analysis by Beena Sarwar

KARACHI, Nov 3 (IPS) - By taking a stand on crucial constitutional
issues, implicit in cases before it, the Pakistan Supreme Court may
have raised the political temperature to a point where, in order to
remain in power, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf felt compelled to
declare emergency on Saturday.

Rumours of an emergency had been persisting for several days, but on
Saturday evening private television news channels were taken off the
air and the state-run Pakistan Television (PTV) announced: `'The
Chief of the Army Staff (Musharraf) has proclaimed state of emergency
and issued provisional constitutional order (PCO).''

According to various sources, judges of the higher judiciary were
asked to take a new oath under the provisional constitutional order
(PCO) -- which a bench of the Supreme Court bench rejected.

The court ruled that no judge and chief justice of the Supreme Court
and High Courts could take oath under the PCO and that no civil and
military officials could abide by any order of a government that went
against the constitution or the law. The prime minister and the
president were made parties in the ruling.

Soon afterwards, troops entered the Supreme Court building
and 'escorted' Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry out, his
services `terminated'. The president of the Pakistan Supreme Court
Bar Association (SCBA) Aitzaz Ahsan and other members of the
influential lawyers' body were also arrested.

The PCO, read out on PTV, squarely blamed the judiciary for the
imposition of emergency rule and accused it of interfering with the
fight against Islamist militancy. "Some members of the judiciary are
working at cross purposes with the executive and legislature in the
fight against terrorism and extremism, thereby weakening the
government and the nation's resolve and diluting the efficacy of its
action to control this menace,'' the order said.

But this only reinforced the general impression that the emergency
had been declared in order to keep Musharraf in power. Talking to
television channels on a mobile phone, from the restroom of the
police station where he was detained, Ahsan termed the emergency and
the suspension of the Constitution `illegal'.

The Supreme Court is seized of a slew of petitions likely to have far-
reaching implications on Pakistani politics -- including the validity
of Musharraf holding the dual offices of president and army chief.
Musharraf's term as president expires on Nov. 15.

After Musharraf pledged to quit the army, before starting a new
presidential term, the court in a short order dismissed these
petitions as "not maintainable" and allowed the presidential
elections to be held on Oct 6 as scheduled -- although the results
could not be announced until the final verdict. This in effect
allowed Musharraf to contest the presidential elections while
remaining army chief.

The final verdict has been expected for some time, but the hearings
kept getting delayed. "This is not a matter that should take so many
days," said eminent jurist and former High Court judge Fakhruddin G.
Ebrahim, talking to IPS on Friday.

The delay has been attributed to the great pressure the judges were
obviously under. Musharraf's refusal to say whether he would accept a
negative verdict from the court also fuelled rumours of emergency
rule or martial law. "Musharraf is behaving like a bad loser as the
decision was not going to be in his favour," said Ahsan.

Until about a year ago, `judicial activism' in Pakistan was largely
limited to taking notice of human rights cases involving, for
example, violence against women. But in terms of politics, this
activism traditionally validated undemocratic actions rather than
striking them down, commented Anwar Syed, professor emeritus of
political science at the University of Massachusetts, United States.

The military has staged several coups, seized the government,
abrogated the Constitution or put it in abeyance (1958, 1977 and
1999). In addition, various presidents dismissed the National
Assembly (1988, 1990, 1993, and 1996). The judiciary validated these
situations by invoking the `doctrine of necessity', which was not a
part of the law, but "a rationale for evading or defeating the law.
Resort to it is, therefore, clearly an exercise in judicial
activism," commented Syed.

Democracy advocates argue that this doctrine should be buried and the
judiciary under Chaudhry appeared inclined to agree.

The Supreme Court has been playing an increasingly pro-active role
over the last year, starting with the cases of enforced
disappearances that have been rising alarmingly since Pakistan became
a partner in the U.S.-led `war on terror'. The media has been
supportive to this process.

In July 2006, Pakistani journalists working for the BBC Urdu service
initiated a ground-breaking special debate on
Pakistan's `disappeared'. Held in the capital Islamabad, the debate
included several government officials and families of the
disappeared.

"In effect, this broke the silence around the issue," said Mazhar
Zaidi, a producer with the BBC in London who was involved in
organising the event. "Once a powerful international media
organisation takes notice of something, local journalists feel safer
taking it on." The local media had held back due to fear of the
powerful intelligence agencies that were behind most of these
disappearances.

The greater openness generated public awareness and facilitated
collective action by the families. When two of the affected families
filed a petition in Aug. 2006, seeking information on 41 missing
persons, the Supreme Court took the matter seriously. Many individual
petitions were also filed. The independent Human Rights Commission of
Pakistan in February 2007 filed a joint petition seeking information
on 150 missing persons.

The court's pro-active stance shook up the intelligence agencies and
led to the production of several missing persons in court.

"The Chief Justice took an excellent stand in the missing persons
case," said lawyer Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim. "Every time a person was
found, the court said this is not good enough. When was this person
picked up and why? They were pushing for accountability."

Political analysts speculate that this contributed to Musharraf's
decision to `suspend' Choudhry in March this year.

But this, in turn, catalysed a four-month-long `lawyers' movement'
that came to symbolise Pakistan's long struggle between
constitutionality and military rule. The stand-off ended in July when
a full bench of the Supreme Court reinstated Choudhry. The court then
returned to the cases of the disappeared with renewed zeal.

Another case that analysts saw as forcing Musharraf's hand relates to
exiled, twice-elected, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif who has
filed a petition on the question of his right to return and
participate in politics.

The Supreme Court upheld his plea on Aug. 23. When the government
bundled the Pakistan Muslim League party leader back to Saudi Arabia
within hours of his landing in Islamabad on Sep. 10, his lawyers
promptly filed a contempt case against a long list of respondents for
violating the court verdict.

The hearings soon falsified the government's claims that Sharif had
left `voluntarily', bound by his `agreement' with the Musharraf
government soon after the military coup of 1999. As the truth began
to unravel, Sharif's unceremonious departure emerged as part of a
long-standing plan initiated at the highest level.

The apex court was also reviewing a petition regarding the National
Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) that President Gen. Musharraf
promulgated on Oct. 5 a day before the presidential elections. The
NRO cleared the way for another former twice-elected prime minister,
Benazir Bhutto, to return to Pakistan without being arrested for the
corruption charges she faced after being ousted from power in 1996.

Bhutto has been criticized for this `deal', in exchange for which her
Pakistan People's Party legitimised Musharraf's presidential
candidacy by abstaining from the vote. The opposition boycotted the
proceedings in protest at Musharraf's nomination as President while
still army chief.

Another case relating to fundamental rights was that of police
brutality on lawyers and journalists outside the office of the
Election Commission in Islamabad when the presidential nomination
papers were being filed on Sep. 29. The main TV channels broadcast
the beatings in graphic detail. The court's suo moto notice of the
incident resulted in the suspension of the top police officers
involved.

(END/2007)

Police rangers surrounded the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) office
this afternoon, where a meeting to discuss the current political situation was
underway organised by the Joint Action Committee. Police broke the hall windows
and disrupted the peaceful meeting and asked the participants to come out. All
the participants were bundled into the police vans and driven to the Model Town
Police Station.

Some activists who were a bit late for the meeting found the office cordoned off
by 12.45 and the road blocked towards the office blocked. "We stayed outside the
hall for half an hour to asses the situation. We contacted some friends in
present in the meeting on moble and apprised them about the situation outside.
More contingents of police were pouring in. It was all a threatening scenario.
Gun totting police men on red lighted vehicles and bikes were all around. The
police ordered all the people waiting ousite the hall to leave the place," said
one of the activists.

They remained in contact with some participants on phone and learnt that after
police entered the hall and stopped the meeting "they offered the women
participants to leave the venue while all the men were told that they are
arrested. The women participants refused to go so they were also arrested along
with men. later they werte all taken to police station. Police has refused to
tell them the nature and period of their detention."

Over 70 people have been detained and taken to the Model Town (Block A) police
station. They include eminent journalist & director HRCP I.A. Rehman, economist
Shahid Hafeez Kardar, lawyer Iqbal Haider, HRCP's Rao Abid Hameed, Dr Mubashir
Hasan (later released because of his age), artists Salima Hashmi & Lala Rukh,
educationist Samina Rehman & other Women Action Forum members, SAFMA's Imtiaz
Alam.

Their families are not being allowed to meet them, although some were able to
get medications etc through to them. There are about 150 family members and
friends gathered outside the police station. Police are saying that under
Sections 3 & 16 of the MPO 1960 (maintenance of public order) they have the
right to detain for up to 30 days without charge.

Meanwhile, about 50 people gathered at Karachi & chalked out a plan to keep
information flowing. Anoher 50 or so just met at Karachi Press Club at a meeting
called by the Peoples Movement for Justice. Prominent Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim,
Hafeez Lakho, Yusuf Mastikhan and others was also there.

Other updates coming in thru various sources, some already published on
newspaper & TV channel websites:
-Sindh lawyers are defying the replacement of the judiciary. They've sent out a
text msg saying: "Sabihuddin in our Chief Justice. All judges continue to hold
office. We do not recognise Afzal Soomro!"
-Sindh High Court Bar Association president Abrar Hasan has been arrested and
taken to Karachi Central Prison (source - his daughter in law)
-Asma Jahangir is under house arrest.
-Other prominent lawyers like former president SCBA Munir Malik are also under
arrest
-Judges being pressurised to take oath
- All news channels still blocked by cable operators, but cell phones and
internet working (at least in Karachi)
- In a press release today, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ)
rejected the promulgation of "mini-Martial Law" in the cover of emergency,
"strongly condemned late night police raids on private tv news channels, two FM
radios following the virtual ban on news channels for the last two days and
decided to resist these action with the cooperation of other media organisations
including International media watchdogshas. They have called an emergency
meeting on Tuesday at 4 p.m. Other journalist unions have already held meetings
in different parts of the country.
- PFUJ has condemned the ordinance-2007, to amend Press, Newspapers, News
Agencies, and Books Registration Ordinance, 2002 and the Pakistan Electronic
Media Regulatory Authority, PEMRA, 2002 - the amendment has 'added to already
existing "black laws," against media and its a direct attack on freedom of
expression and freedom of the Press.'

Earlier some ideas were floated about peaceful protest against the emergency:
- Wiki site being set up for info
- Wear white with a black armband or black ribbon.
- Put a black flag on your car or motorcycle and wear black arm bands in
peaceful protest against martial law.

Update re: the arrests this afternoon, when police rangers in Lahore
arrested some 70 human rights activists, including lawyers, artists,
women's rights activists and educationists. At the time of writing
(12.45 PST), most of them are still in detention.

However, prominent journalist & Director HRCP I.A. Rehman and HRCP
Secretary General, lawyer Iqbal Haider have been transferred to HRCP
Chairperson Asma Jahangir's house (which has been declared a sub jail
where Asma herself is under house arrest). Former finance minister
and HRCP Council member Dr Mubashir Hasan, who is over 80, was
allowed to go to his own house.

The police surrounded the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP)
office at around 1 pm this afternoon and broke into the hall an hour
later, disrupting a peaceful meeting of civil rights activists
gathered to discuss the emergency in Pakistan.

The arrests were apparently made under Sections 3 & 16 of the MPO
1960 (maintenance of public order) although the meeting was being
held indoors at a private venue and posed no threat to public order.
Police had no written orders and are claiming the right to detain
those arrested for up to 30 (or 90) days without charge.

The families of the detenues haven't been allowed to meet them,
although they were able to send in essential items like medicine and
water. They are holding a candlelight vigil outside the police lock
up in Model Town (Block A).

Bail cannot be posted for any of them and according to some reports
they may be transferred to Mianwali jail tomorrow.

Those arrested include: eminent journalist & editor of HRCP's Jehd-e-
Haq newsletter Hussain Naqi, economist Shahid Hafeez Kardar, director
of HRCP's vulnerable prisoners' project Brig (rted) Rao Abid Hameed,
artists Salima Hashmi & Lala Rukh, educationist Samina Rehman,
prominent columnist Imtiaz Alam, secretary general South Asia Free
Media Association (SAFMA), lawyer Bilal Minto, economist Ali Cheema,
sociologist Rubina Saigol, Azra Shad, Khalid Mehmood, HRCP lawyer
Mehboob Khan and barrister Salman Raja.

The TV stations are still broadcasting news, but cable operators in
Pakistan have been made to block transmission - those of you abroad
can see what's going on. Here, those of us with access to the
internet can get some news - minute 12 of the footage (Urdu) at this
link shows the gates of Asma Jahangir's house being sealed, as she is
placed under house arrest -
http://pkpolitics.com/2007/11/04/news-update-2-4-november-07/
According to the update, some judges have taken oath. However, an
unprecedented number of judges have so far refused (around 60,
according to some sources).

Besides human rights activists, it is being reported that police are
arresting lawyers from small towns in order to preempt the lawyers'
strike announced for tomorrow.

Supreme Court Bar Association President Aitzaz Ahsan gave a telephone
interview while in an Islamabad police lockup - someone videoed it
and put it up on youtube -
http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=1V9YaDeYDGs

Message from Harsh Kapoor in France:
"I have created some web pages on citizens statements in response to
the emergency: http://www.sacw.net/pakistan/emergency/
http://membres.lycos.fr/sacw/
I can also set up an easy to use wordpress site with posting access."

thanks Harsh, please do it.

Naeem writes: Monday November 5th will be  observed as a Black Day.
Demonstration at Karachi Press Club 4PM. Wear a black arm band till the martial
law / emergency is lifted and the judges restored.

Current updates:

1. This morning, there was massive police deployment outside Lahore High Court
--  for the first time also inside, while the Lahore High Court Bar meeting was
under way.

The lawyers began going on Mall Road outside the LHC & police first shelled
inside the LHC gate, then viciously beat those in the front of the procession.
There are around 4000 police compared to about some 400 lawyers.

In Karachi, police entered the Sindh High Court and arrested the lawyers trying
to escort the judges in – including Chief Justice Sabihuddin and others. The
detained lawyers have been kept in the
Artillery Maidan Thana, and police were bringing more in... Arrested lawyers
include Zahid F. Ebrahim, Haider Waheed, Taha Alizai, & CJ Sabih's son.

Currently there are 40-60 lawyers in the lockup. Police started taking away
their cell phones and some managed to hand them to friends outside.

The BBC says that the police beat up lawyers who were outside the High Court - 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7078364.stm

Lawyers have called a protest at the Karachi Press Club this evening.

Meanwhile, the detained activists in Lahore were transferred to sub-jails late
last night (3.30 am) and placed under ‘house arrest’ – women in one house, and
men in two others. They may be released today.

2. Nov 4, 2007, from Asma Jahangir:

Dear Friends,

The situation in the country is uncertain. There is a strong
crackdown on the press and lawyers. Majority of the judges of the
Supreme Court and four High Courts have not taken oath. The Chief
Justice is under house arrest (unofficially). The President of the
Supreme Court Bar (Aitzaz Ahsan) and 2 former presidents, Mr. Muneer
Malik and Tariq Mahmood have been imprisoned for one month under the
Preventive Detention laws. The President of the Lahore High Court Mr.
Ahsan Bhoon and former bar leader Mr. Ali Ahmed Kurd have also been
arrested. The police is looking or 6 other lawyers, including
President of Peshawar and Karachi bar. The President of Lahore bar is
also in hiding.

There are other scores political leaders who have also been arrested.

Yesterday I was house arrested for 90 days. I am sending my detention
order.

Ironically the President (who has lost his marbles) said that he had
to clamp down on the press and the judiciary to curb terrorism. Those
he has arrested are progressive, secular minded people while the
terrorists are offered negotiations and ceasefires.

Lawyers and civil society will challenge the government and the scene
is likely to get uglier. We want friends of Pakistan to urge the US
administration to stop all support of the instable dictator, as his
lust for power is bringing the country close to a worse form of civil
strife. It is not time for the international community to insist on
preventive measures, otherwise cleaning up the mess may take decades.
There are already several hundred IDPs and the space for civil
society has hopelessly shrunk.

We believe that Musharaf has to be taken out of the equation and a
government of national reconciliation put in place. It must be backed
by the military. Short of this there are no realistic solutions,
although there are no guarantees that this may work.

Asma Jahangir

3. From Mazhar Abbas, Secretary General, Pakistan Federal Union of
Journalists (PFUJ)

JOURNALISTS DETAINED, BEATEN, PREVENTED FROM COVERAGE

ISLAMABAD, Nov 5: In worst kind of repression against media, police
and paramilitary forces have detained bureau chief of ARY, Quetta,
and cameraman, arrested two brothers of ARY senior correspondent in
Sukkar and threatened scores of journalists, cameramen during
coverage.

Reporters and cameramen were also beaten by the police while covering
lawyers protest in Rawalpindi and also tried to snatch their cameras.

According to reports collected by PFUJ till 11 a.m. on Monday, ARY
office in Sukkur was raided, women staff were humiliated following
arrest of two brothers of its senior correspondent, Lala Asad Pathan
on Sunday night. They left the office after asking the staff to
ensure that Asad should surrender.

On Monday, ARY bureau chief in Quetta, Sattar Kakar and his cameraman
were detained by paramilitary while taking films of the protest.

Scores of journalists including cameramen were threatened in the
field by police and paramilitary while performing their professional
duties and covering the lawyers protest in different parts of the
country. They were not allowed to work freely and are facing
threats..

All tv news channels including foreign news channels remained off air
on the third day. Cable operators were told to air only Music,
movies, sports, cartoon network....anything other than news.

"It's the worst kind of repression against media in Pakistan in 30
years.People have been deprived from thei basic right to know," PFUJ
said in a statement.

PFUJ have appealed to reporters and cameramen to be careful and
cautious during their coverage as their lives and safety are under
threat.

4. Human Rights Watch demands end to Emergency Rule and Restoration
of Constitution, deplores crackdown on Civil Society in the name of
move Against `Militants' -
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/11/04/pakist17241.htm

5. Footage of protests in Islamabad yesterday, where dozens of men
and women were arrested – http://www.reuters.com/news/video?
videoId=70151&newsChannel=newsOne – with this news update:
Nov. 4 - Elections in Pakistan could be severely delayed after the
declaration of emergency rule in the country.
Up to 500 people have been arrested and detained as military ruler
President Pervez Musharraf tries to stifle outcry over the emergency
measures. Musharraf claims he implemented the measures because the
country is in a crisis caused my militant violence and a hostile
judiciary. The United States says it will review financial aid to
Pakistan following the crackdown.

6. PAKISTAN- INDIA PEOPLES' FORUM FOR PEACE & DEMOCRACY (Maharashtra)
November 4, 2007

PRESS STATEMENT

Pakistan-India Peoples' Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD)
strongly condemns the imposition of Emergency in Pakistan. This
Emergency is illegal and unconstitutional. The Emergency means
suspension of all fundamental rights. The regime of Pervez Musharraf
today arrested Dr. Mubashir Hasan and I A Rehman, both founding
members of PIPFPD, amongst others. The regime has also arrested Asma
Jahangir, internationally acclaimed human rights activist, in and
sealed office of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), Lahore.

Musharraf has usurped the independence of judiciary by sending troops
in the Supreme Court of Pakistan and detaining Iftikhar Chooudhary,
Chief Justice of Pakistan and removing other judges who refused to
take oath under Provincial Constitutional Order (PCO). Emergency is
imposed as judiciary, of late, became pro-people and embarrased
Musharraf many times. The Supreme Court was to deliver a judgement on
petitions challenging the election of Musharraf as President of
Pakistan.

Emergency also means encroachment on freedom of expression and
speech. It is no surprising that few vocal journalists, too, are
arrested.

We express our solidarity with the struggling, pro-democracy people
of Pakistan and express confidence that sooner than later the
citizens of Pakistan will achieve true democracy.

Thanks,

(Jatin Desai)
Hon. Secretary
PIPFPD (Maharashtra)

1. PROTESTS, DEMOS, ARRESTS...
2. PFUJ RE: JOURNALISTS DETAINED, HARASSED, ATTACKED
3. STATEMENT BY CJ IFTIKHAR CHAUDHRY
4. MORE UPDATES from a journalist friend with access to satellite TV

1. PROTESTS, DEMOS, ARRESTS...

- About 200 lawyers were arrested in Lahore. Police got many from
their offices

- Detained human rights activists in Lahore were shifted to Kot
Lakhpat jail from their sub-jails (three houses in Gulberg that
apparently belong to the Attorney General's brother). Later at night
(about 8.30 PST) many were sent back to the sub-jails. The police in
its FIR charges that they were outside the HRCP building, and went
inside when police arrived, so police followed them (!!)

- The lawyers detained in Karachi this morning were still in police
lockup till late night; they may be sent to jail also

- There was a protest, deliberately brief, in Pindi and Islamabad
each. Four people were  arrested, including a lawyer

- In Karachi, police arrested Farid Awan, president of the Pakistan
Movement for Justice who had called a meeting at the Karachi Press
Club today. The meeting was disrupted by various factors, including a
misunderstanding between organizers and the KPC office bearers. In
the confusion, some of those who went out of the premises to protest
were also arrested – incl. Liaquat Sain of the State Bank labour
union, Umar Farooq of PMJ, and Yusuf Mastikhan, President of the
National Workers Party. Three cameramen/photographers were also
beaten and arrested. link to some images:
http://web.mac.com/agitation/emergency_2007

2. PFUJ RE: JOURNALISTS DETAINED, HARASSED, ATTACKED

From Mazhar Abbas of PFUJ: About 16 journalists have been detained
around the country, and raids on printing press and bureau offices by
the police in what appears to be one of the worst kind of repression
against the media since 1978.

Details:  Police detained the Quetta bureau chief and cameramen of
ARYONE WORLD, and eight others including photographers while they
were performing their professional duties. They were later freed but
their films were removed and warned of taking further visuals.
Authorities had not handed over some of cameras till evening.
In Karachi, police raided the printing section of daily Jang, and
tried to stop printing of special supplement of daily AWAM. They
surrounded the Press of Jang, but due to strong resistance avoided
further action.

Police detained one reporter and four cameramen outside Karachi Press
Club. In Sukkur, two brothers of senior correspondent of ARY, Lala
Asad Pathan were arrested from his house on Sunday, after they could
not found him. They left after giving warning to his son. On Monday,
they raided the bureau office but could not find him.

In Abbotabad, police baton charged the joint processions of
journalists and lawyers. Three journalists were injured. There also
reports that intelligence agencies have picked-up the President of
SAFMA, Imtiaz Alam. In Rawalpindi, police beat journalists covering
lawyers protest and tried to remove film from their cameras. In
Lahore, one cameraman was injured during baton charge during lawyers
protest.

In Islamabad, all journalists except four boycotted the Prime
Minister's function at the PM Secretariat on the call of the
Rawalpindi-Islamabad Union of Journalists. As soon as the PM came the
journalists and cameramen announced the boycott and left the place.
Foreign Office briefing was also postponed in view of the possible
boycott.

PFUJ has also condemned the government campaign against the
journalists from the State control Pakistan Television while private
tv news channels, national and foreign and FM-radio news remained off
the air for the third consecutive day.

3. STATEMENT BY CJ IFTIKHAR CHAUDHRY

Statement of the hon'ble Chief Justice of Pakistan, Mr Justice
Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry

November 05,2007:
This statement is being issued on behalf of the Hon.Chief Justice of
Pakistan Mr.Justice IftikharMohammad Chaudhry.

"Whole judiciary of Pakistan is struggling for supremacy of the
constitution. The PCO issued by General Musharraf has been declared
as a step to interfere in the independence of judiciary, therefore
restraining order against it has been issued on 3rd november after
it's issuance by a judicial order passed by the 7 member bench of the
Supreme Court which is holding the field and has to be
respected/enforced. Any action after passing of this order is illegal
taken by the government including administering oath to judges of
supreme court and high courts as well as detention of lawyers
including Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan President SCBA and good numbers of
lawyers and members of civil society because their only sin is that
they opposed the emergency and PCO.

Judiciary as a whole condemns terrorism and allegation of the
government regarding this is baseless and unfounded.About 12-13
Judges of Supreme court of Pakistan have refused to take oath under
Pco and few Judges including their Chief Justices are under house
arrest(arrest for all purposes).On 5th of november morning Judges of
the Supreme Court were stopped to move out as they wanted to go to
the supreme court to attend their Judicial duty including hearing of
a case by full court regarding pco in which restraining order has
been passed.This order has been passed on an application filed a day
earlier in the case of Justice (retd) Wajih-ud-din (candidate for the
post of President) versus President of Pakistan and fedaration of
Pakistan by Brrister Aitzaz Ahsan apprehending that government by
adopting extra constitutional measures may change the bench.

This order has been passed on judicial side and is to be
imposed/enforced by all and sundry.Nobody can defy this order,who
defy the same he defy the constitution which takes care under article
6 of the constitution.Lawyers through their representatives have
informed me that Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan has been kept in solitary
confinement in Adiala jail and some of the officers/officials have
manhandled him without any reason.He is not bieng provided basic
amenities.Under the rules his lawyers and family members can meet
with him but this right has been denied in as much as his wife is
also apprehending her arrest.
In the end I would say that me and all the hon'ble judges of the
supreme court were exercising our jurisdiction in accordance with law
and constitution and are determined to do so in the future"

4. MORE UPDATES from a journalist friend with access to satellite TV:

- The White House on Monday sharply criticized Pakistan's Pervez
Musharraf for imposing a state of emergency, urging him to call
elections in January and to quit his military post, and release all
those detained after the promulgation of emergency.

- There are strong rumours about a counter-coup – according to some
reports, Kayani and Mush are negotiating and have not yet come to
terms. M is being asked to quit and handover to senate chairman...

- TV channels are flashing Rice statement: she has asked Mush to take
off uniform (!!) asap (from JOINT PRESS AVAILABILITY -  Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice And Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas,
November 5, 2007, Ramallah)

Excerpt re: RICE ON PAKISTAN:
SECRETARY RICE:  We're very focused on the message to the Pakistani
leadership.  I believe that Ambassador Patterson has just recently
been with President Musharraf in a larger gathering with some other
ambassadors from the area.  But I want to be very clear.  We believe
that the best path for Pakistan is to quickly return to a
constitutional path and then to hold elections.  It is also true that
President Musharraf has said that he would take off his uniform.
That would be an important step.  Because so much has happened over
the last several years to try and pull Pakistan away from extremism,
to try to launch Pakistan on a democratic path, to launch Pakistan on
a path toward the return to civilian rule.  And our disappointment is
that this is a setback for that path.  And so the more quickly and
the more urgently that the Pakistani leadership and President
Musharraf act on their stated desire to get back to a constitutional
path, it will be for the better of everyone, most especially for the
Pakistani people.

- The attorney general, shaukat aziz and pervaiz elahi have said in
various statement that the elections will be held on schedule;
assemblies will be dissolved on nov 15 and that the present
assemblies will not be given any extension. The international
community has condemned the emergency including the us. The pentagon
has even suspended defence talks with pakistan.

- Rashid Qureshi said on Geo that all western diplomats (about 80)
that met Musharraf today said that they were satisfied with what he
was doing. He went to the extent of saying that each one of them met
M individually and said they were satisfied with what he had done.
But govt officials are saying off the record that they cannot support
his actions.

- television channels are flashing a statement of Shaukat Aziz that
elections will be held on schedule.

1. Some detention updates incl. Lahore human rights activists
2. Counter the news blackout: Wiki page & CNN link
3. Revenue losses to channels
4. Worldwide protests - from Hong Kong to Washington DC
5. News updates - some points from a good NYT report
6. ONLINE PETITIONS incl Avaaz (very effective)
7. American Bar Association support for Pakistani lawyers

And two links to relevant IPS reports
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39929 - Bush bets the farm on
Musharraf
My report – Hard on civil society, soft on extremists -
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39930

beena

1. Detention updates:
- Lahore: - 155 out of the 865 advocates arrested in Lahore on Monday
have been sent for a three-day remand in the judicial lockup by the
anti-terrorist court – may be charged under the anti-terrorist act.
- Lahore: The detained human rights activists went home today
(Tuesday evening, PST) after posting bail, but Asma Jahangir remains
under house arrest
- Karachi: Some of the Karachi lawyers were released on bail
from Karachi Central Jail around 4 am today
- Five of the activists arrested outside Karachi Press Club
Monday evening were remanded to police custody for 15 days (Clifton
police station) – Farid Awan, President, Peoples Movement for Justice
(PMJ); Liaqat Sahil, PMJ, Ayub Qureshi, information secretary
National Party Sindh, Hasil Bizenjo, Secretary General, NPS, and
Yusuf Mastikhan, Vice President, National Workers Party. The
cameramen (whom police had also beaten) were released within a couple
of hours.

2. Counter the news blackout:

- Type directly into your address bar to see Geo TV live...
mms://stream.wmlivesvc.vitalstreamcdn.com/live_stream_geo_tv_GeoVid -
your windows media should open with the stream running (thanks Hasan)

- Pakistan Emergency Wiki page. Anyone can post updates;
circulate the link – anyone can edit it (suggestions for
additions/corrections to Sabahat ashrafs@...
- You can also just hit "Edit" casually, and put in rough
notes, corrections, etc. Sabahat or another volunteer, can clean up
if needed. There are three pages, and an index page
- http://pakistan.wikia.com/wiki/Emergency_2007
http://pakistan.wikia.com/wiki/Emergency_2007_Detainees
http://pakistan.wikia.com/wiki/Emergency_2007_Events (thanks Sabahat
& AR)

Send photos, videos, reports to all the media –
CNN has a special link up -
http://topics.cnn.com/topics/pakistani_politics (thanks Isa)
Miguel Loureiro, a professor from LUMS writing about the protest in
the UK (thanks Ghazah): "Someone from CNN (he asked me not to be
mentioned) told me to tell you to (in his words) "flood our website
with pictures, videos and reports of what is happening there". Send
them to I-Report at:
http://edition.cnn.com/exchange/ireports/toolkit/index.html -  CNN
loves this "people reporting" and also that it's been very difficult
to get their reports out of Pakistan (BBC and NDTV also said the
same). Send your videos and pics &reports to them."

3. Revenue losses to channels (besides the stock market drop): From a
friend at an advertising company – "Everything on hold. Major loss of
revenue to the channels. Only entertainment channels on. They r not
only blacking out the news but also muzzling the channels to teach
them a lesson so to speak" (thanks Seema)

4. Worldwide protests:
- Hong Kong - at the Pakistan HC in Hong Kong Monday afternoon -
another one is planned for Friday 9 Nov. (organized by the Asian
Human Rights Commission)
- Washington DC "one of the most impressive events that I have been
part of in my 40 years of activism… so impressive that we have no
choice but turn up in very large numbers on Friday, November 9 from 3
PM to 4 PM in front of the White House to impress upon President Bush
that it is time to stop all military aid to Pakistan until Military
returns to barracks," writes Khalid Hashmani
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crdp/message/1875

- Plus London, New York and San Francisco, and people are
planning one in Boston.
- All protest information, photos etc can be posted to the Wiki
site listed above. Please also make sure to send to Harsh Kapoor
<aiindex@...>

5. News updates:
- Conflicting estimates re the number of lawyers in jail in Lahore on
Monday night 500-700 in custody, scattered in various police cells
and jails, including one of the country's most prominent corporate
lawyers, Parvez Hassan.
- About 2,000 people rounded up since Saturday night
- General Musharraf said in his emergency edict that he was
taking the action as chief of the Pakistani Army, not as president, a
fact that made his move akin to martial law
- BB to go the capital on Tuesday from Karachi, PPP rally to go
ahead on Friday in Rawalpindi, staged as a protest. "We decided this
would be a protest meeting where we would protest the imposition of
military rule. This protest movement will continue until the
Constitution is restored."
In Multan hundreds of lawyers forced two new judges to leave the
courtroom.
(from NYT report - Pakistan Attempts to Crush Protests by Lawyers
(By JANE PERLEZ and DAVID ROHDE, November 6, 2007, -
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/06/world/asia/06pakistan.html)

- another good piece - 'A nation of hostages held at gunpoint' by
Declan Walsh in Islamabad, Tuesday November 6, 2007
http://www.guardian.co.uk/pakistan/Story/0,,2205885,00.html

Most online papers also have video components.

6. ONLINE PETITIONS:
- http://www.avaaz.org/en/emergency_pakistan
- http://www.gopetition.com/online/15064.html

7. American Bar Association support for Pakistani lawyers - from
William H. Neukom, President ABA, Nov. 5, 2007:
http://www.abanet.org/abanet/media/statement/statement.cfm?
releaseid=214 - "The ABA is studying additional ways to respond
effectively as an organized bar, and we will advise you as other
strategies and tools for your use are developed. In the meantime, I
welcome you to send any suggestions to abapresident@..., so
that we can factor your ideas into our discussions."

As the police and law enforcing agencies are busy rounding up civil
rights activists and lawyers in the rest of the country, the Taliban
are taking over the north-western territories - according to today's
newspapers, a third town in Swat has fallen to them. According to a
reporter in Peshawar said at one place they were seen driving around
in an APC left behind the state forces.

Meanwhile, the media blackout in Pakistan continues. PFUJ has given
the government a 48-hour deadline to withdraw the the two Ordinances
against print and electronic media, end the blockade of private tv
news channels, FM-radios (See message from Mazhar Abbas, Secretary
General PFUJ below). There was a big protest meeting at the Karachi
Press Club yesterday.

There have been reports all over the country of protests, some
reported in the papers and some not. Protestors blocked the KKH
Highway the other day, there were also reports coming in from smaller
towns like Badin in Sindh.

The papers tend to report protests in the major cities in more
details - eg some 500 Quaid-e-Azam University students & some faculty
joined in 'flash protests' in Islamabad & there were also other such
protests in the capital - http://www.dawn.com/2007/11/07/nat1.htm.
Yesterday's papers also carried reports of a protest by some 400 LUMS
(Lahore University of Management Sciences) students and teachers.
After a long time, students are joining the democratic political
struggle.

beena

From Mazhar Abbas, Islamabad, Nov 7:

Dear colleagues,

In an emergency meeting of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists
(PFUJ), held in Islamabad, has decided to resist all kind of
pressures against media and has given 48-hours deadline to the
government to withdraw the two Ordinances against print and
electronic media, end the blockade of private tv news channels, FM-
radios.

The meeting, which attended by the President and General Secretaries
of affiliated unions, Executive Council members of the PFUJ,
unanimously decided to launch a protest campaign against the "anti-
people," steps taken by the government and deprived people from their
basic right to know.

If government failed to withdraw the two Ordinances,
countrywide "Black Day," will be observe during which journalists
will stage walkout from the official functions including that of
President and Prime Minister.

The meeting strongly condemned Sindh police for producing detained
four cameramen and one reporter in handcuffed in court on
Tuesday. "Its most humilitating to produce journalists in courts like
criminals. It clearly showed that the emergency is not to crush
militancy but freedom of expression, voice of dissent and civil
society," it said.

PFUJ has worked out a month long strategy to counter anti-media moves
which includes countrywide protest day, hunger strike camps, protest
demonstrations. Details will be release to the media in a Press
Conference on Wednesday, afternoon.

PFUJ has also decided to invite an International Mission of
International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) to Pakistan and to
observe "Global Action Day," in solidarity with the Pakistani
journalists.

PFUJ has also appealed to the newspaper editors, owner's bodies and
broadcasters to support journalist's struggle and join hands for
combined movement.

Regards,
Mazhar Abbas

MEDIA

- Two channels are come back on air, CNBC-Pakistan (stock market tickers) &
Business Plus. All the other news channels are still off air via cable, although
those with satellite get all the broadcasts. Apparently satellite dishes have
been selling like hot cakes. People were also crowding around lectronics shops
with televisions outside broadcasting through satellites.Today there was an
order banning their sale (in Karachi at least).

- The Washington Post reported that the ISI had picked up Mir Shakilur
Rehman, the owner of the largest media group, Jang – In the Heart of
Pakistan, a Deep Sense of Anxiety, By Emily Wax -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2007/11/06/AR2007110600516.h\
tml?referrer=emailarticle –
(a senior management person I asked about this says that 'they did
talk to him  and advised him re: the coverage. Later an email was received
saying that if the group wrote anything against the army he & his family would
be hunted down like rats. Also, yesterday we received a letter, supposedly sent
by the Taliban, threatening to blow up Jang & Geo offices. But as u can see, we
are holding steady"). It's a good piece anyway.

- PTV DETERMINEDLY OPTIMISTIC - TALKED TO NAWAZ SHARIF, ASKING WHY HIS
PML-N WEREN'T PART OF ARD mtg at which BB announced a rally in Pindi on the 9th
and a long march on the 13th.  (both of which the govt has said they will not
allow)… PTV also talked to Amin Fahim of PPP - they've clearly come a long way
since the time no opposition was allowed on air. But the divisions are obvious
(which obviously is the design).

- Nuzhat Ahmad writes: "The NYT and the Post have been plastered with
Pakistan news. Today's op-ed page in NYT is almost all about Pakistan. I request
everyone to start an organized "letters to the editor" campaign. It does not
matter whether they get published or not. The point is to have the newspaper
receive hundreds of letters urging support for the people of Pakistan in their
struggle.I have already started this in Philadelphia, and have approached
Pakistanis as well as non-Pakistanis, and most have complied. Please keep the
letters short, to the point, and avoid a rant. The e-mail addresses are as
follows: letters@...<letters%40nytimes.com> &
    letters@... <letters%40washpost.com>" (P.S. I would add,
please post copies of the letters to the Emergency Wiki page -
http://pakistan.wikia.com/wiki/Emergency_2007)

  CITIZENS PROTESTS:

- In Lahore LUMS students staged another protest, despite their campus
being surrounded by police. EXTREMELY IMPORTANT: PLEASE BLUR ALL PICTURES BEFORE
YOU SPREAD THEM! 15 LUMS students have been identified; police are demanded that
they be handed over for detention

- A group of citizens presented several bouquets of flowers to Sindh Chief
Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed at his residence today. Police vans on either end of
his lane blocked cars from going through so the citizens parked on the main road
and walked down the lane without any obstructions.

- Another group of about 40 did a brief demonstration in Karachi.

- An activist who attended two protests in Islamabad today says they
were both very good - "the one in front of the kacheri was typical of the civil
society - about 150 ppl... it was very peaceful - policemen said they were there
to safeguard us ehhehehhe. The one in the evening in front of parliament was
huge by Islamabad standards - 500 or so - and police released tear gas when ppl
tried to break through the barricades. And they had speakers the size of me with
faiz's
poem blaring and people dancing in the lights of cars."

According to PTV News, the protest in front of Parliament was called
by the PPP. A few people were arrested – but they didn't show these visuals like
the offending TV channels do.

- Boston is getting activated for a protest (Saturday, Boston Common at Brewer
Fountain on the Tremont St side, 10 am-12 noon I believe - contact
saadmustafa.rizvi@... or at 857-334-8012). Chicago protest also coming up.

FOOTNOTE:

Since we're being forced to watch 'pitti hui news' - the PTV newscaster and talk
show hosts sound terribly self-congratulatory on behalf of the government. But
they can't hide the fact that the parliamentary session they are showing is half
empty and
  totally lackluster. Shaukat Aziz just said congratulated the house for being
the first to complete its term, and stressed that democracy has been brought to
Pakistan!!!

The papers are full of news of protests all over the country -- and police
brutality. The tempo is picking up as the PPP weighs in. Today's News carried a
front page picture of police attacking a PPP demonstrator, the force of the blow
breaking the stick on the man's back.

PPP is going ahead with it's protest tomorrow, which the PFUJ has also declared
as a "Black Day" after unsuccessful negotiations with the government (the
Federal Information Minister Mohammad Ali Durrani and Secretary Information
Anwar Mahmood). Their four demands are: withdrawal of the two amended Ordinances
against print and electronic media, resumption of tv news channels and FM-radio;
action against police officials responsible for manhandling journalists:
withdrawal of notices against two newspapers under PPO-2007: and immediate
appointment of the Chairman Implementation Tribunal for Newspapers Employees.
Besides "Black Day" on Friday, PFUJ members will boycott officials functions,
hold protest camps Nov 14-17, Global Action Day Nov 15, and countrywide
demonstration on Nov 20.

Besides CNBC-Pakistan and Business Plus (yesterday) BBC and CNN are back on air
in Pakistan, as well as Indus Vision. The govt wants the electronic media bosses
to accept certain conditions before they'll let them broadcast news. Channels
like Geo, Aaj & ARY are till holding out, despite huge revenue losses. Business,
sports
and entertainment have been allowed but not for these channels.

Today AFP reported from Lahore that the anti-terrorist court has
freed 300 lawyers on bail - this is a total falsehood as the bail
hearing has been fixed for Nov 10th. So someone is spreading
misinformation. Only two women were released.

Ali Cheema on NPR - recently released activist (and economist at
LUMS) http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16107657
(thanks Ayesha)

From Omar Khan in the Bay area: Commentary and Pak-American reaction
to the crisis from Jaiza. We will continue to post reactions across
the U.S. on both Youtube and www.jaiza.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zJFGXxJ4-s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5X5FWNFx9w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHlDTOIkYdg

Below, a comment I wrote (unpublished), please don't circ for a couple of days.
thanks
beena

November 7, 2007

Comment

Pakistan `Emergency': A preemptive strike, collateral damage, and
protests

Beena Sarwar

The first reaction was that of disbelief, quickly followed by
outrage. We had been hearing rumours of an impending emergency for
several days, but few thought that President Gen. Pervez Musharraf
would actually go that far. In the end though, it should not have
come as a surprise. After all, he had nothing to lose but his chair.
And the `kursi' as we all know in Southasia, is all important for the
one that has it.

Hanging on to the kursi, the chair, by any means possible takes
precedence over institutions or democracy for many of our political
leaders. Why should President General Pervez Musharraf be any
different – especially when he has two chairs to protect? When it
became clear that the case regarding his presidential nomination,
filed while he was still army chief, pending before the Supreme Court
would not go in his favour, he went for a swift preemptive strike,
targeting the only government institution that stood in his way, the
higher judiciary. The collateral damage is going to be heavy in terms
of democracy in this country.

Since he made the pronouncement as Chief of Army Staff (rather than
as President), critics are terming the move as a martial law, rather
than the more innocuous sounding `emergency'. In a televised address
to the nation, Musharraf chose to wear a black `sherwani' rather than
a western suit or his military uniform. With a picture of Pakistan's
founding father on the wall behind him and a Pakistani flag on the
other side, he explained his reasons. The spread of `religious
militancy' and violence coupled by the counter-productive stand taken
by the higher judiciary left him with no choice but to take this
painful step.

The negativity of the judiciary has included their taking up cases of
hundreds of `disappeared' people, in which the bench made the
unprecedented move of summoning the heads of the powerful
intelligence agencies and other high officials to court to account
for these missing people. Since many of the `disappeared' have been
whisked away supposedly because they were engaged in terrorist
activities, this countered the military's fight against the US-
led `war on terror'. However, many political observers believe that
the real reason for the imposition of the emergency was the soon-to-
be announced Supreme Court judgment regarding Musharraf's
presidential nomination, which was expected to go against him.

Interestingly, other all government institutions are kept intact –
the National Assembly and the four provincial assemblies, as well as
the Senate. The offices of the Prime Minister, all four provincial
governors and chief ministers remain functional. But the judiciary is
in tatters. The judges who refused to take fresh oath under the
Provisional Constitutional Order proclaiming the `emergency' were
promptly dismissed. These included of course the troublesome Supreme
Court judges who were hearing the presidential nomination case. The
judges refused to accept this. An emergency bench of the Supreme
Court ruled against the PCO and directed the government not to heed
it.

State force was then used to physically remove these courageous
judges from the Supreme Court premises. They have been placed under
house arrest. The provincial Chief Justices and high court judges are
also confined to their houses. The leaders of the `lawyers' movement
are behind bars. This is the movement that Pakistani lawyers
sustained for over four months, supported by civil society, when
Musharraf first suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Choudhry in March
this year on charges of misuse of authority.

The detained lawyers include the star of the lawyers' movement, the
charismatic, recently elected Supreme Court Bar Association President
Aitzaz Ahsan. The government has placed Ahsan in isolation in the
notorious Adiala jail, where Faiz Ahmed Faiz and his co-accused were
held in the Pindi Conspiracy Case. Ahsan's predecessor as SCBA
President, Munir A. Malik and another former SCBA President are also
in prison.

The new chief justice hastily sworn in by the uniformed Musharraf has
since declared that as the judiciary had to take fresh oath under the
PCO, the bench which ruled against the PCO was in any case invalid
and therefore so was its ruling.

A large number of Pakistan's lawyers and judges have refused to
accept this verdict – and the offending PCO. They are once again for
the restoration of Chief Justice Iftikhar Choudhry. They refuse to
recognize the judges who have taken oath under the PCO. The deposed
judges also refused to accept their dismissal and resolved to enter
their chambers on Monday. Police prevented some of them, like the
Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court Sabihuddin Ahmed, from leaving
their homes in the morning. Those who reached the courts were
escorted back to their homes by the police. The lawyers who had
gathered there to support them paid a heavy price for their defiance–
hundreds were severely beaten up by the police all over the country,
hauled off to police stations. Many face charges under anti-terrorist
laws.

However, they are not alone in their defiance. They are joined by all
those groups and individuals who have for decades been fighting for
democracy in Pakistan. There is outrage among civil and human rights
activists who stand for peace and democracy – artists, economists,
teachers, development consultants, and journalists.

Apparently the threat from this quarter is so great that it warrants
police breaking into an NGO office and arresting all those present,
as happened at the office of the independent Human Rights Commission
of Pakistan on Sunday. A large number of human rights activists were
meeting to discuss the situation. Police smashed their way in,
rounded up everyone present and carted them off to the Model Town
police station. They must be appreciated for chivalrously having
given the women the opportunity to leave. More laudable was the
stance of the women, who refused the kind offer. But then, they
included long time activists like Salima Hashmi and Lala Rukh, both
artists and art teachers, and educationist Samina Rehman – and that
is what one would expect of them. Another prominent woman, the
celebrated activist Asma Jahangir who is also the HRCP chairperson,
was already under house arrest, served with a notice of 90 days.

In the First Information Report (FIR) against the activists, police
claimed that they were creating a public disturbance outside the HRCP
office. Such falsehoods are common in FIRs, and they appear to be
particularly common in these trying times. The FIR against
journalists arrested outside the Karachi Press Club on Monday
describes them as `hardened' criminals. Police produced them before
court in handcuffs later that day.

The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) has termed the
repression as the worst since the Zia days. The journalist body has
given the government 48 hours to withdraw the two new ordinances
promulgated to control the electronic and the print media. After
that, warns PFUJ, its members will observe a `black day' and boycott
government functions.

For the first time in decades, college students have joined this
struggle. With them are hundreds of young `techies' who are posting
out photos, video and testimonies on the web and networking around
the globe to get the message across, that the `emergency' is
unacceptable. People are going to the homes of the dismissed judges
to leave bunches of flowers (prevented in some cases by the police
guard outside). Activists are wearing black bands and holding `flash
protests' and vigils around the country. And all over the world,
outraged Pakistani expatriates, traditionally a pretty apolitical
lot, are holding protests in front of the Pakistan embassies and
consulates -- from Hong Kong to London, New York to San Francisco.
And in Washington, in front of the White House, that has stood by
Musharraf unconditionally, merely giving him a rap on the knuckles
for this latest transgression by loudly condemning the emergency and
detentions on the one hand, and vowing to stand by him on the other.

(ends)

NEWS FLASH: HRCP website has been blocked, says Sindh Chairperson.

Inter Press Service special section on Pakistan trouble at:
http://www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/pakistan/index.asp
  My latest piece for IPS http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39990
POLITICS-PAKISTAN: Intelligentsia Finds Ways to Beat Emergency Rule
(text below)

FLOWERS FOR THE JUDGES: "Please go and visit the judges in groups of
2-3, take flowers and/or notes of support. This is what is making the
biggest difference right now, given the pressure they are in," says a
lawyer. Some people already visited Chief Justice Sabihuddin on
Wednesday. The small group took flowers, greeting the policemen
guarding the street on either end politely. "There's no law against
giving flowers, is there?" one of them asked the policeman, who
graciously allowed them through. More such visits are planned to the
other judges.

STUDENTS & LAWYERS: Lawyers have welcomed the involvement of more
students join in the protests. Most of them are under great
pressure. "We need the attention taken off us," said one. Their
phones are being tapped and sms messages either intercepted or passed
on to the wrong people. Intelligence agencies cited an sms, forwarded
by lawyers on Saturday as a reason for not releasing them. "Sabih is
our Chief Justice. All judges continue to hold office. We do not
recognize Afzal Soomro," said the sms.

ARRESTED ACTIVISTS CHARGED WITH SEDITION: Police charged Baloch
nationalist leader Hasil Bizenjo, his party's provincial chief Ayub
Qureshi, the vice-president of the National Workers Party, Yusuf
Mustikhan, and trade union leader Liaquat Sahi, arrested outside
Karachi Press Club on Monday with sedition which carries a maximum
sentence of death. They were also accused of distributing pamphlets
against the state of emergency declared by Gen Musharraf.

On Wednesday, Karachi police registered sedition cases against eight
lawyers, including a woman, on charges of inciting people against the
state of emergency. The lawyers have gone into hiding (AFP, 2007-11-
08, 14:20:01, on Aaj TV website).

DAWN NEWS ON YOUTUBE: Msg from a friend at Dawn News TV (English, one of the
news channels holding out against the government) – "For those who want to see
what was on air on Dawnnews when it was banned by
goverment i have up loaded few good reports on emergency plus. Following are
links to these or simply search Dawnnews1 on youtube -
it is our unoffcial account on youtube"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9RPcpf2KYI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2fuzcq-Neo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS65rLpYcH8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS65rLpYcH8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHekqKjI3ks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ9lCyyplZo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igYMKkx4LiM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpmzP__b6-0

Text of article - POLITICS-PAKISTAN: Intelligentsia Finds Ways to
Beat Emergency Rule
By Beena Sarwar

KARACHI, Nov 9 (IPS) - Faced with a continuing news blackout and with
street protests being met with police beatings and imprisonment,
members of Pakistan's civil society who oppose the `emergency',
imposed by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf a week ago, are finding
alternative ways to express dissent.

"This is a battle that cannot be won on the streets," commented a
development economist asking not to be named. "We are few in numbers.
We don't have street power. Mass mobilisation is the job of the
political parties. What we can do is provide the brains, the
strategies and the manifestoes."

Pakistan's intellectuals and civil society activists were the first
to react against the emergency imposed on Saturday. Activists in
Lahore who met at the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
(HRCP) to discuss the situation were arrested and detained before
finally being released on Tuesday evening. HRCP chairperson Asma
Jahangir is still under house arrest, served with a 90-day detention
order.

Families and friends expect the detainees to be released sooner. Many
belong to the intellectual and social cream of society -- professors,
lawyers, journalists, artists, economists, former ministers and
retired army officials. But their powerful connections were useless
this time. The relative of one detained activist who managed to get
through to a `very high level official' was told that the local and
provincial administration was helpless. "The orders came from the
very top, to teach these people a lesson," the official reportedly
said.

The regime has been particularly brutal on the legal community for
refusing to accept new judges sworn in under emergency orders. The
judges of the superior courts who refused to take oath under these
orders were placed under house arrest and thousands of lawyers
imprisoned around the country. Many were brutally beaten before being
hauled off. Hundreds have been charged under the anti-terrorism laws.

In a statement on Nov. 8, Jahangir drew attention to two former
presidents of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA)-- Muneer A.
Malik and Tariq Mahmood. Malik – shifted, she alleged, to the
notorious Attack Fort "under the custody of the military intelligence
and tortured". No one has been allowed to see Mahmood or Aitzaz
Ahsan, recently elected SCBA president. Mahmood has been shifted "to
an unknown place". The whereabouts of Ali Ahmed Kurd, former vice
chair of the Pakistan Bar Council, are also unknown. He is believed
to be in the custody of military intelligence, said Jahangir.

Police have also targeted journalists in what the Pakistan Federal
Union of Journalists (PFUJ) terms as the worst repression of the
media since the days of the military dictator, Gen. Ziaul Haq who
held power from 1977-88. Police beat journalists who emerged from the
Karachi Press Club following a protest meeting on Monday, and
arrested six. The journalists, nominated in the police report
as `hardened criminals', were produced before a magistrate in
handcuffs. The PFUJ has released a poster based on this image
headlined `Press in Chains' -- the title of a famous book by the late
chronicler of media freedoms, Zamir Niazi.

After an inconclusive 45-minute meeting with the government over the
withdrawal of anti-press ordinances, resumption of television
channels and FM radio on Thursday, the journalist union announced a
countrywide "Black Day" on Friday. The protest will include a boycott
of official functions, protest camps from Nov. 14 -17, a Global
Action Day on Nov. 15 and countrywide protest rallies and
demonstrations on Nov. 20, said Mazhar Abbas, PFUJ's secretary
general. The detention of civil society activists, lawyers and
journalists have prompted criticism that Musharraf is diverting
attention from the `war on terror' that has reached worrying
proportions, particularly on Pakistan's north-west frontier that
borders Afghanistan. "While the terrorists remain on the loose and
continue to occupy more space in Pakistan, senior lawyers are being
tortured," said Jahangir.

Mainstream political parties have been relatively slow to respond but
since twice elected former prime minister Benazir Bhutto on Tuesday
announced an agitation starting with a protest on Friday, Nov. 9, and
a `long march' from Nov. 13, workers of her Pakistan People's Party
(PPP) have been demonstrating in various cities. The government has
banned both events.

On Wednesday, police in Islamabad thrashed workers attempting to
break through a barricade near the National Assembly. Hundreds of PPP
activists have been detained around the country.

The blackout on television news has made it hard for people to know
what is happening. "There's nothing going on," said Nausheen, an
economics teacher who gave only her first name, talking to IPS.

By Wednesday evening, two business channels (Business Plus and CNBC-
Pakistan) had been restored. On Thursday, BBC and CNN were also back
on air. However, these channels are in English, a language few people
in Pakistan understand. (A business channel holding discussions in
Urdu also resumed broadcast on Thursday)

The newspapers are publishing critical comments, reports and
photographs, but Nausheen does not read any. So like most Pakistanis,
she remains unaware of current happenings. The surface normalcy that
is visible intersects frequently with the pockets of protest
catalysed by the emergency, found Saskia Sassen, a professor of urban
sociology at Columbia University, recently in Pakistan to deliver a
lecture in Lahore. Writing in the British newspaper `The Guardian'
(`Pakistan's Two Worlds', Nov 8), she observed, that "through it all,
the streets continued to bustle, the traffic remained heavy and the
airlines continued to fly according to schedule, as if nothing is
happening".

Shops, businesses and banks are open -- but it is shutters-down for
Quetta, capital of the western province of Balochistan where a small
nationalist party gave a strike call on Monday.

Urban markets continue to do booming business. One item that was
selling fast, after the news channels were blocked over cable, was
satellite dishes. But on Wednesday, shopkeepers were told they could
not sell satellite dishes. "I wish I had kept my satellite dish,"
said a visual artist, meeting friends at a lively coffee shop in
uptown Karachi. "Now it's just the internet."

This is in fact a tool that the younger generation in particular is
using effectively. Information exchanged over the internet and via
cell phone text messages has enabled young people to organise quickly
and effectively. This includes the normally de-politicised students
of private institutions who have been mobilised for the first since
the ban on student unions two decades ago, say observers.

Students of a premier business school, the Lahore University of
Management Sciences (LUMS), have loudly opposed the emergency and
suspension of the constitution. Several LUMS professors were among
those arrested from the HRCP meeting on Sunday. The ranks of the 400
(four hundred) students who participated in the first protest on
Tuesday swelled to 1,500 the next day. Islamabad's prestigious Quaid-
e-Azam University (QAU) has seen similar activism, with students
holding `flash' protests called at short notice, chanting slogans,
then dispersing before police arrive.

For their part, civil society activists are engaging in creative ways
of protest focusing on symbolism, like taking flowers to the
dissenting judges and spray-painting graffiti symbols like `eject'
and `repeat' signs. On Wednesday, a small group of activists took
several bouquets to Sabihuddin Ahmed, Chief Justice of the Sindh High
Court (SHC), who is also under house arrest. Police vehicles blocked
both ends of Ahmed's residential street.

Salahuddin, the judge's son, was among the lawyers arrested from the
SHC on Monday. He was also among the few lawyers to be released early
Tuesday morning. He was unharmed, but Haider Waheed, another young
lawyer released around then, had bruises on his neck and upper back
caused by blows from police fists when he tried to resist arrest.

"These youngsters should not be aggressive," said Waheed's
grandmother Sadiqa Waheeduddin, 88, who cut her teeth on the
resistance against British rule before Pakistan and India's
simultaneous independence and partition in 1947. "This is all about
politics. If the police is arresting them, they should go quietly and
not resist. After all, what did they go there for? If they hit back,
what is the difference between intellectuals and the illiterate? When
the police beat (Mahatma) Gandhi or Maulana Hasrat Mohani, did they
retaliate? It is because of their patience that their ideas caught on
around the world."

The Internet and cell phones have helped sustain the protests and
connect activists in Pakistan with sympathisers abroad. Judging by
the e-mails, blogs and messages of support whizzing about, the
expatriate community is in an uproar. They include `techies' like
Sabahat Ashraf (iFaqeer), a blogger, technical writer and activist in
Silicon Valley, who created a `wiki page' on the emergency.

"While the business world obsesses about what this means for
enterprise and the all-important bottom line, activists are using the
tools of the Web 2.0 world -- blogs, wikis, user-created multimedia
sites like YouTube and its clones -- to vault the barricades and get
around censorship and the other tools of police states," he commented
in an e-mail to IPS from San Francisco.

Ashraf says that it was initially natural disasters like the tsunami
in South-east Asia and the earthquake in Pakistan that inspired
activists like him to use Wikis to great effect -- rapid,
collaborative information-collecting and organising, fundraising, and
so on.

"All these factors are coming together with the emergency in
Pakistan. A list of detainees and their status is evolving; protests
are being planned; information on where to see live feeds of
Pakistani news channels is being exchanged,'' he said. `'A new factor
is Facebook, fast emerging as a social networking platform on which
vigils and protests are being coordinated, photos and websites
exchanged..."

Such information exchanges have had a ripple effect within Pakistan
too. A chartered accountant recently e-mailed activists, saying "a
large number of chartered accountants intend to join the struggle for
the retoration of democracy, supremacy of judiciary and rule of law.
Please tell us what we can do."

(END/2007)

apologies for cross posting

SUPPORT FOR THE NON-PCO JUDGES: Justice (r.) Wajihuddin told some visitors
at his Karachi residence on Sunday that the judges are under tremendous
pressure to take oath. One of the Sindh High Court judges had been offered a
Supreme Court judge-ship but had refused. There is still tremendous pressure
on these judges. A group from the Women's Peace Commission, Karachi today
met several judges at their residences, to extend their solidarity and
appreciation for these non-PCO judges. Such action by people is crucial at
this point.

CHANNELS HOLDING OUT:
- Msg from a friend at Dawn News TV: Live Streaming on our web site too any
one now can see DAWN NEWS live streaming at -
http://www.dawnnews.tv/home/index.aspx
- Msg from friend at Geo TV - Check out geo.tv and click on the banner with
the scales. (however, this seems to be blocked; their sms service for news
updates was blocked within hours also)

SUBMIT TESTIMONIES, REPORTS, PHOTOS TO THE MEDIA: NYTimes.com is asking
readers in Pakistan to help report on events in the country - send
eyewitness accounts of protests in photographs, video or text. To submit a
picture, e-mail to: world.nyt@... —  "let us know when and where the
photograph was taken and what it depicts. Please also include your name, but
if you would prefer not to be identified, let us know that as well. To
submit written descriptions of events, please use the comments field at the
foot of this page. To submit video, please use the form below and provide
the same information."

SUPPORT FROM WORLD PRESS: In a press release of 9 November 2007, the World
Association of Newspapers and World Editors Forum welcomed the release of
WEF Board Member Imtiaz Alam from detention in Pakistan and called on
Musharraf to release all other journalists detained since the emergency. In
a letter to President Musharraf, the Paris-based WAN and WEF called for the
release of the journalists and a halt to the crackdown on the media. The
letter can be read at http://www.wan-press.org/article15470.html - The WEF
is the organisation for editors within the World Association of Newspapers
http://www.worldeditorsforum.org. Inquiries to: Larry Kilman, Director of
Communications, WAN, 7 rue Geoffroy St Hilaire, 75005 Paris France. Tel: +33
1 47 42 85 00. Fax: +33 1 47 42 49 48. Mobile: +33 6 10 28 97 36. E-mail:
lkilman@...

SUPPORT FROM AMERICAN LAWYERS: The American Bar Association has planned a
national effort to show solidarity with lawyers in Pakistan and to support
restoration of the rule of law. They are organizing a march in Washington,
D.C., on Wednesday, November 14, 2007, "where a critical mass of lawyers
wearing black suits will gather and walk around the United States Supreme
Court Building," according to a statement by ABA President William H. "It is
essential that American lawyers work together to support the rule of law.
Please join our effort to show the world that Pakistan's lawyers are not
fighting alone." Several Bar Associations across the US have already held
such events - statements at
http://www.abanet.org/barserv/resourcepages/pakistanresponse.shtml .
Contact Roseanne Lucianek at lucianer@... or Joanne O'Reilly at
oreillyj@... in the Division for Bar Services with further
questions.
LAWYERS: Many Karachi lawyers have been released from Karachi Central Jail
where they were detained for maximum of 90 days under the MPO. The MPO is
arbitrarily withdrawn when they are allowed to leave. A review board sits
every day to decide who will be allowed to go. By Monday most are expected
to be out. Human Rights Watch is collecting testimonies from around the
country.

There were rumours about Munir A. Malik having been ill-treated but people
who have been in contact with him say he is ok.

UPDATE FROM FAROOQ TARIQ, Secretary General Labour Party Pakistan (LPP):  He
has sent a letter with his update – he is still underground, staying at
different places every night and borrowing clothes from friends as he's not
carrying a bag. They have been able to hold a meeting of the leading members
of LPP, give interviews to private television channels and to a private team
working for CNN. We have also been faxing news releases daily to most of the
news papers in Pakistan. LPP chairperson Nisar Shah (Advocate Lahore High
Court) was arrested in Islamabad on 7th November along some party activists
after he led a demonstration of lawyers.

TORONTO PROTEST: Huge demonstration on Friday evening at the Pakistani
Consulate organized by the South Asian Peoples Forum (SAPF) to condemn the
imposition of Emergency rule, the suspension of Constitution, and the
illegal take-over of the judiciary by General Musharraf, attended by well
known lawyers, journalists, and writers among hundreds, report the
organizers. SAPF demanded that Canada develop an independent and informed
position on political developments in Pakistan, and in no uncertain terms
press towards disengaging the Pakistani military from domestic politics.
(Abdul Hamid Bashani Khan, TEL:905-212-9880)  – details at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/advocacycouncil/


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Some news flashes from today:
- Jam Saqi's house in Hyderababad raided (he was away)
- Heavy police contingent outside Karachi Press Club, PPP activists Saeed
Boota, Anis Fatima, Jahanzeb arrested.
- Benazir press conference in Lahore at 7.45 PST

- CIVILIANS CAN BE TRIED UNDER MILITARY RULE (scroll below for detailed news
report & text of ordinance)



- THE NEWS SERVER IS BLOCKED; Jang, Dawn still online



- HRCP WEBSITE NOW UNBLOCKED – http://www.hrcp-web.org/  - UPDATES AT
http://hrcpblog.wordpress.com/



- DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL RESIGNS IN PROTEST AT EMERGENCY – DAG Yawar Ali
Khan resigned from his office on Saturday to protest the imposition of
emergency. Khan is the son of former chief justice of Pakistan, Yaqoob Ali
Khan, and brother-in-law of Supreme Court judge Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday (one
of the non-PCO judges). - Daily Times



- PROTESTS CONTININUE ALL OVER PAKISTAN. IN ADDITION, SOME DETAILS FROM
EXPATS ABROAD:



BOSTON: NOV 10TH 2007 – Students from MIT, Harvard, Emerson, Wellesley,
Berklee College of Music, Tufts & Mass General Hospital, along with
professors & expat lawyers, doctors & others. (Scroll below for summary).

Photos at
http://emergency2007.blogspot.com/2007/11/images-from-rally-in-boston-to-protest\
.html(thanks
Harsh)



VANCOUVER, BC, CANADA: Statements against the emergency by South Asian
Network for Secularism and Democracy (*SANSAD, *Nov 7) and India-Pakistan
Peace Network (IPPN), supported also by other community-based organizations,
on November, issued at a Press conference held jointly on Nov 8, at 11:30
a.m., Vancouver Arts Gallery (thanks Imran Munir).

- SANSAD: Dr. Haider Nizamanni: 604 - 228-0349; or 604 - 307-3744, Dr. Hari
Sharma: 604 -420-2972; SANSAD - *Suite** 435**, 205 - 329 North Road,
Coquitlam, BC, Canada. V3K 6Z8, phone: (604) 420-2972; FAX: (604) 420-2970,
*email: *sansad@...*

- IPPN : (Captain) Muhammad S Mahtab, 604 526 0990 or 778 908 1250

(Scroll below for statement excerpts).





1. CIVILIANS CAN BE TRIED UNDER MILITARY RULE

President amends Army Act 1952 (Agencies)

ISLAMABAD: President, General Pervez Musharraf Saturday promulgated Pakistan
Army (Amendment) Ordinance, 2007 to amend the Pakistan Army Act 1952. The
ordinance would empower military courts to try civilians accused of
instigating or carrying out acts of terrorism against armed forces, Attorney
General Malik Qayyum said.



The amendment to the Army Act of 1952 will also allow military courts to
take up cases involving persons like tribal militants and to try persons
planning to carry out suicide attacks. Qayyum said the offence of terrorism
had been added to the Act.



"Civilians instigating or carrying out acts of terrorism against armed
forces personnel can now be tried by military courts," Qayyum told TV news
channels.



The amendment will also redefine the role of security agencies by giving
them powers of arbitrary detentions, officials had said earlier.



Qayyum said Section 21-D of the Army Act had been reviewed and some new
sections have been added to it. After these amendments, now military
personnel have been authorised to investigate those involved in terrorist
acts.



The AGP said that according to the amendments, the police could not arrest
terrorists who attacked the army. He also added that the punishments,
already included in the Army Act, had not been changed.



Text of the ordinance:



Ordinance No. LXVI of 2007 An Ordinance further to amend the Pakistan Army
Act, 1952.



Whereas it is expedient further to amend the Pakistan Army Act, 1952 (XXXIX
of 1952), for the purpose hereinafter appearing;



And Therefore, the National Assembly is not in session and the President is
satisfied that circumstances exist which render it necessary to take
immediate action:



Now , Therefore, in exercise of the powers conferred by clause



(1) of Article 89 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
read with Proclamation of Emergency of the third day of November, 2007 and
the Provisional Constitution Order No. 1 of 2007, the President is pleased
to make and promulgate the following Ordinance:



1. Short title and commencement:



(1) This Ordinance may be called the Pakistan Army (Amendment) Ordinance,
2007.



(2) It shall come into force at once and shall be deemed to have taken
effect on the 1st day of January, 2003.



Amendment of section 2, Act XXXIX of 1952: In the Pakistan Army Act, 1952
(XXXIX of 1952) in section 2, in sub-section (1) in clause (d), in
sub-clause (ii), for the semi-colon at the end a comma and the word "r"
shall be substituted and after sub-clause (ii) amended as aforesaid,the
following new sub-clause shall be inserted. namely:



"(iia) any offence, if committed in relation to defence or security of
Pakistan or any part thereof or Armed Forces of Pakistan, punishable under
the Explosive Substances Act, 1908 (VI of 1908), Prejudicial conduct under
the Security of Pakistan Act, 1952 (XXXV of 1952), the Pakistan Arms
Ordinance, 1965. (W.P.Ord. X of 1965), the Prevention of Anti-national
Activities Act, 1974 (VII of 1974) or Anti-terrorism act, 1997 (XVII of
1997), sections 109, 117, 120B, 121, 121A, 122, 123, 123A, 124, 124A, 148,
302, 353 and 505 of the Pakistan Penal Code, or attempt to commit any of the
said offences."



President General Pervez Musharraf

* *

2. PROTEST DETAILS:



a. BOSTON: NOV 10TH 2007: Students from local universities and colleges held
a successful protest rally at the Boston Commons, organized by MIT and
Harvard University students, supported by local groups like Friends of South
Asia and The International Action Center. & human rights activist. Some 200
people attended the rally, including the expatriate community -- academics,
lawyers and physicians. Percussion drums from Berklee College of Music
synchronized the chants of AZAADI (freedom). Emerson College students took
video footage & interviewed people. Wellesley women were in the forefront
holding banners and led the "march of the chain" in a symbolic message of
support for Pakistanis who have been arrested and brutalised for speaking
out. Brandies University students, professor & program director, plus
physicians from Tufts University and Massachusetts General Hospital
addressed the students and expressed their solidarity. Lawyers and judges
shared personal accounts of the brutalities their colleagues in Pakistan are
facing. People read out Faiz's poetry (thanks Fawzia Wali Khan & Aqil
Sajjad)



b. VANCOUVER, NOV 7:

SANSAD condemned the promulgation of the Provisional Constitutional Order
(PCO) as "an assault on the already fragile democratic institutions of the
country." Clause 2 (1) of the PCO issued by the Chief of Army Staff that
gives powers to the President to "amend the Constitution, as is deemed
expedient" is a "recipe for imposing personal, dictatorial rule over 160
million Pakistanis. The PCO further gives the President and Prime Minister
total indemnity as the courts cannot give any judgment that is against these
individuals or anyone they give authority to."



Such sweeping powers to the President and the Prime Minister "are
detrimental for political and civil rights of the people of Pakistan, and
will further entrench the military in the state, economy and social life of
the country. The group condemned the suspension of the fundamental rights
enshrined in the Constitution of Pakistan and the large-scale arrests of
politicians, lawyers, judges, and human rights activists.



"We seriously doubt General Musharraf's stated claim that the Emergency has
been imposed to fight extremists' militancy in the country. We believe that
his policies of carrying out the US agenda and its 'war on terror' are
principally responsible for the rise of militancy in the country.



We demand that General Pervez Musharraf be removed as the Chief of Army
Staff and the President without delay. We demand that a transition
government of national consensus be formed which should hold fair and free
elections within 90 days, so that the political power is finally transferred
to the duly elected representatives of Pakistani people and the role of the
military in the governance of Pakistan brought to an end.



"We also demand that the United States stop all military assistance to the
Musharraf regime, and stop all interferences in the internal affairs of the
country.



"We express solidarity with all democratic forces of Pakistan who have
bravely challenged authoritarian moves of General Pervez Musharraf."



c. JOINT INDIA-PAKISTAN PEACE NETWORK (IPPN) STATEMENT also expressed deep
concerned about the imposition of emergency in Pakistan. "The Diaspora of
India and Pakistan, in particular the citizens of Pakistan living in
Canada, are deeply saddened and gravely concerned on the imposition of a
state of emergency in Pakistan by General Pervez Musharraf.



"We are also very concerned about the safety of journalists, political
leaders, opposition leaders, lawyers & judges, peace and human rights
activists, and common men & women who refused to accept this action taken by
the government….



"With the imposition of state of emergency and curbing the basic political
and democratic rights of the people of Pakistan, we believe that not only
Pakistan and people of Pakistan would suffer heavy losses and encourage
further extremism but also the existing process of peace and confidence
building between India and Pakistan would be badly affected….



"The imposition of state of emergency would in no way improve the situation
in Pakistan or help improve its relations with the neighboring countries;
rather, it would be detrimental in all respects."



IPPN demands that General Pervez Musharraf remove the "state of emergency
(which is practically a Martial Law) with immediate effect, reinstate judges
and restore judicial system, release all those arrested unlawfully, restore
freedom of media and hold fair & transparent general elections as soon as
possible, and allow the new duly elected government to run the country and
its affairs including so-called fight against terrorism.



"We also ask the international community, supporters and friends of Pakistan
to sincerely, openly and clearly demand and pursue on General Musharraf to
remove state of emergency and one-man rule, restore Constitution of Pakistan
and democratic process in Pakistan without any delay."


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

KARACHI, NOV 11: A group of concerned citizens from the Peoples'
Resistance (umbrella group formed to resist emgency) have been
meeting the non-PCO judges over the last few days to extend
solidarity and appreciate their stand. (Peoples Resistance is a
coalition of civil society organisations that includes Karachi WAF,
HRCP, Womens Peace Commission, lawyers, journalists, and other
professions.)

Below is a summary of the key points that emerged from these
meetings.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Nov 11, 2007.

Civil society coalition, People’s Resistance, is appalled at the attempt by
General Musharraf to destroy the independence of judiciary of Pakistan.

Civil society condemns the following steps undertaken by General Musharraf to
undermine the judiciary and to demoralise the honourable judges who have refused
to take oath under the PCO:

1. The newly appointed Chief Justice of Sindh High Court had submitted his
resignation before Nov 2, 2007. His health has rendered him unable to function
mentally, as his cognitive abilities were compromised after his illness two
years ago. By appointing him as the Chief Justice of Sindh High Court, the
judiciary of Pakistan in general and of Sindh in particular have been
compromised.

2. Rangers and Police violated the sanctity of Sindh High Court by raiding it.
The raiding party included uniformed and plainclothes policemen. According to
eye witnesses some members of an ethnic group, in civilian clothes, were also
among the police.

3. The honourable judges who abided by the Supreme Court directive to not take
oath under the PCO 2007, were humiliated:
a) They were summarily ordered to vacate their offices and given no time to do
this.
b) Some judges had to empty their shelves and drawers onto bedsheets to carry
them home. Their personal items were thrown away.
c) The security guards to which judges of High Court are entitled even after
their retirement, have been withdrawn from their homes
d) Judges in Punjab are under house arrest. Civil society groups are being
prevented from meeting them
e) Telephone of some judges has been disconnected.
f) High Court judges are being prevented from visiting the courts.

4. The honourable judges who said ‘no’ to PCO are being threatened:
a) Right to pension will be withdrawn
b) They will not be allowed to practice law.
c) Sons of some of the judges were arrested without any charges
d) Senior military officers phone and pressurise them to take oath under the PCO

5. Three judges from Sindh who have taken oath under the PCO are known to visit
the Governor’s house every day. This violates the resolution passed in 2006 by
all Sindh High Court Judges that no judge would visit the governor or the chief
minister in their offices.

6. The amendment of the Army Act, giving the armed forces the power to arrest
citizens and try them in military court, further undermines the judiciary.  In
the current set up, it would now be a farce to challenge this appropriation of
power.

Despite the appropriation of all power by General Musharraf, through the
declarations made by him on Nov 3, 2007, civil society stands firm on the
following points:

1. The PCO is illegal, according to the Supreme Court judgement of Nov 3rd 2007

2. Judges who have taken oath under the PCO have violated the Constitution of
Pakistan,  and the Supreme Court judgement of Nov 3rd.

3. Suspension of the Constitution of Pakistan is illegal

4. Arrest of hundreds of lawyers and the decision to charge them under the
Terrorist Act is a despicable act. It reflects complete disregard of people’s
right to protect the independence of judiciary and to be treated with respect.

5. The blockage of independent TV news channels is immoral and illegal as it is
a denial of freedom of expression.

6. A joint movement of lawyers, media and civil society will continue against
the martial law and its accompanying attempt to subvert the independence of the
judiciary and the media.

Civil society makes the following demands:

1. Immediate restoration of the Chief Justice of Pakistan and the judges of the
Supreme Court and High Courts that have not taken oath under the PCO.

2. The judges who have taken oath under the PCO must resign immediately.

3. The judges who have started visiting the Governor must desist this practice
immediately, as it subverts the judiciary to the executive and thereby insults
the judiciary which is the most central pillar of a State.

4. Changes in PEMRA ordinance must be withdrawn and restrictions on the media
must be removed without any conditions.

5. All lawyers that have been arrested must be released immediately, and all
cases withdrawn.

PEOPLE’S RESISTANCE, a civil society alliance of Karachi, calls upon all
professional groups, NGOs, trade unions, student unions , and individuals to
join the platform of resistance in its peaceful campaigns for the restoration of
independence of judiciary, clearning of the judicary of the unprinciples judges
that have taken oath under the  PCO, restoration of the independence of the
media, and the security of all the people of Pakistan by the restoration of the
Constitution of Pakistan.

We the citizens of Pakistan salute the judges who have not taken oath under the
PCO, and have thereby asserted the inalienable right of the judiciary to remain
independent.
We the citizens of Pakistan salute the media in its determination to protect the
independent role of their profession.

There were more arrests all over the country today, even as some
people were released. HRW & others are compiling testimonies of those
arrested/detained/beaten. Need facts, names, places etc. Compiled a
list of the Karachi lawyers detained (incl those released so far).
Pls post on Wiki page - http://pakistan.wikia.com/wiki/Emergency_2007

Musharraf press conference today (on PTV of course) – I missed it but
heard he was very aggressive, totally justified his actions, and
plans to hold elections under `emergency'. An `emergency' that
constitutional experts agree is unconstitutional – or extra-
constitutional because there is no provision for it in the
Constitution. (Incidentally, at least one Islamic scholar has also
declared that suspending the Constitution is a sin - Islamic scholar
Javed Ahmed Ghamdi, in a statement published in The News today)

An excellent op-ed by Qazi Faez Isa in Dawn (`Living and dying under
emergency', Nov 10, '07) quotes the relevant articles Article 6 (1)
as well as the army oath, and goes on to say: "Emergency has been
proclaimed by the army chief, but the Constitution does not give the
army chief such power. The emergency envisaged under the Constitution
is under certain, very special circumstances, and can be imposed only
by the president acting on the advice of the cabinet/prime minister.
The stated special circumstances, too, do not exist.The reasons cited
in the Proclamation of Emergency include "judiciary is working at
cross purposes with the executive and legislature", interference
by "the judiciary in government policy", "interference in executive
functions", "humiliating treatment meted to government officials".
None of these so called grounds permit the imposition of emergency.
The Proclamation of Emergency, therefore, clearly contravenes the
Constitution.

"All lawyers except those on the gravy train of the public exchequer
are protesting. The government acknowledges that in the two largest
cities of Pakistan alone it has arrested 500 lawyers of which 344
have been arrested in Lahore, although according to the BBC, 3,000
lawyers have been arrested. The police barged into courts premises,
lobbed teargas shells and beat peacefully protesting lawyers with
lathis. Never before in the history of the world have so many lawyers
been arrested. Not in Hitler's Germany, Franco's Spain or Saddam's
Iraq. Another record to be displayed in the camp office next to the
one earned for making Pakistan the `most dangerous place in the
world'.

"Musharraf after acknowledging his failure — "there is visible
ascendancy in the activities of extremists and incidents of terrorist
attacks"— thinks the solution lies in arresting all lawyers and
judges who do not grovel before him. Similarly, if the resources of
the state are spent on arresting and imprisoning members of the Human
Rights Commission and members of civil society the terrorist would
vanish. And he has also embarked on muzzling the media. Does this
stand to reason? So much effort and resources would have been better
expended in detecting and apprehending terrorists instead.

"Each one of the lawyers that were arrested stood against religious
extremism and terrorism; Zahid Ebrahim, who graduated from America's
prestigious Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, father of six-year-
old Khadija and four-year-old Fatima, and Ishrat Alavi who did his
law from S.M. Law College, father of three-year-old Kamil and 10-
month-old Sana. But, on the very same day the government tells us
that it has freed "25 militants in exchange for the release of 213
army personnel".

"The following day when the entire security apparatus of the state
was hounding judges, lawyers, journalists and members of liberal
society, Madyan, a town in Swat, fell to the extremists "after
security forces surrendered without firing a shot". What is the moral
of the story? What is the lesson to be learnt?

"Highly educated men and women have been arrested. The future of
Pakistan lies in a state of arrested development. A phone call from
London informed me about the imposition of emergency in Pakistan as
all private and international news channels had been blocked. The
History Channel, however, was running, showing a programme on
Hitler."

Isa concludes: "The Constitution is the life of a nation. Aristotle
writing over 2,300 years ago knew that `Living for the Constitution
is salvation'. Anyone trampling the Constitution tramples on our
rights and wants his point of view to prevail by force. When the
government cuts off the tongue of the media, arrests judges,
bludgeons and incarcerates peaceful citizens it too acts like a
terrorist.

"Standing up for the truth and the Constitution is likely to get one
arrested. But when your little Fatima or Sana come to question why we
live in a police state you will not lower your gaze."
(http://www.dawn.com/2007/11/10/op.htm#3)

Some of the English language papers are publishing very boldly – as
the article above shows, and Isa's is certainly not an isolated
voice. The `News on Sunday' as usual has an excellent issue,
analyzing and re-capping the situation and providing detailed
information – eg cover story http://jang.com.pk/thenews/nov2007-
weekly/nos-11-11-2007/enc.htm#1 However, this view does not get
across to the public. As in the Zia years, the English papers
continue to be the window dressing of media freedom in Pakistan.
Censorship, what censorship?

PTV continues the old Khabarnama, so vilified since the Zia days, but
leaps and bounds better after having had some competition lately – at
least the opposition is visible (barely). But the propaganda is
blatant enough to make you gag. This is what they apparently want all
the news channels to look like. Some have capitulated. Indus News is
back on air and so are some of the Sindhi and Punjabi channels. The
big ones – Geo TV, Ary, Aaj, Dawn News – are still holding out,
refusing to agree to the condition that they say amounts to a
journalists' PCO. How long they can hold out is anyone's guess.

Apparently some people went and met Justice Bhagwandas's family in
Karachi on the occasion of Diwali, and some also managed to go and
express solidarity with him. Email from Islamabad: "Citizens of
Islamabad gathered outside Civil Junction to celebrate Diwali in
solidarity with the Honourable Justice Rana Bhagwandas, our
courageous 'Prisoner of Conscience' who was forced to celebrate this
significant event at home. Thank you, honourable Bhagwandas and the 6
other honourable judges for giving 'hope' to our children. We will
always be grateful to you and you will live forever in history."
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11037074@N07/1962046758/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11037074@N07/1961180943/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11037074@N07/1961187917/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11037074@N07/1962027084/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11037074@N07/1962033200/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11037074@N07/1962039492/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11037074@N07/1961172147/

Javed Aziz writes: Also, the Boston protest is on Reddif. Hear it
when you get time.
http://ishare.rediff.com/filemusic.php?id=65920. This is from the
USA. WE ARE WITH YOU.

Support from NASABA, the North American South Asian Bar Association
representing the US and Canada's South Asian attorneys:  "We are
releasing a letter tomorrow to Musharraf denouncing his actions.  The
letter will be co-signed by the National Association of Muslim
Lawyers, the National Bar Association (the group representing
America's African American attorneys) and the National Hispanic Bar
Association.  At the same time we are working on a more substantive
letter that we hope will influence policy in the United States and
abroad.  The purpose of the second letter is to provide detailed
information about what's happening on the ground and names of lawyers
who are currently being held, the reasons why they are being held,
and proposals of what the US should do.  The hope is that the letter
will reach members of Congress and others in the US community so as
to help educate the US community when dealing with Pakistan.  We also
hope the letter will be a resource for other groups like the American
Bar Association.  For more information about NASABA, please see
www.na-saba.org.

"That all being said, what I want to offer is NASABA's people and
brain trust to help fellow South Asian lawyers in need.  To that end,
if you need our help in any regard, please don't hesitate to ask.
Our support for a return to the Rule of Law in Pakistan is
unequivocal."
From Alamdar S. Hamdani, NASABA-President
(Houston, Texas) Telephone Direct:  713-987-7102; Cell:  832-654-6478
hamdani@...; Web: www.bhsfirm.com

Just heard that several CEOs of private companies are planning to come out
for a public protest – if they do, it will be a first! – And good for them.



Below:

- Detained lawyers update (Karachi)

- More names to add to list of non-PCO judges (and one to take out)

- Protests in Islamabad today

- FAFEN press conference re: elections under emergency (4 pm)

- 'THE EMERGENCY TIMES' -  Email John Doe theemergencytimes@... for a
copy - 7th Issue now out. - pakistanmartiallaw.blogspot.com - Contribute
articles, opinions, news and most importantly, 'EYE-WITNESS ACCOUNTS' at
theemergencytimes@....

- More websites - http://freepakistannow.org/ &
http://emergency2007.blogspot.com/

http://emergency2007.blogspot.com/

- MAST FM 103 statement on SHUTDOWN & equipment seized

SOLIDARITY STATEMENTS & LETTERS FROM:

- Pakistan-India People's Solidarity Group, India,

- National Union of Journalists (India),

- Asian Democrats;

- Women Living Under Muslim Laws letter to UN Special Rapporteurs urging
action against Martial Law; US Senate

- Protests in Manchester, Glasgow, Sweden

- PRESS RELEASE FROM US SENATE -
http://biden.senate.gov/newsroom/details.cfm?id=287157&& (Nov 8, 2007) - Kerry,
Biden Introduce Pakistan Resolution Condemning State of Emergency


DETAINED LAWYERS UPDATE: This update mostly relates to Karachi, where
friends have compiled a list of the lawyers (48) sent to Central Prison
since Nov 3. Those listed were served notice under the MPO. The list does
not include several lawyers who were picked up but neither detained nor
arrested under the MPO, and released from the police station.



*A small group of lawyers is helping them, providing essentials and working
to get them released. *They include Faisal Siddiqi and Tamash Rizvi (Justice
retired Rasheed Rizvi's son). Faisal says that more than financial support
what they need is solidarity from citizens – if you can visit the Central
Jail even if for a short while, please contact them. There are a hundred
things to do there, says Faisal. His number is  +92-333-232-7326; Tamash
Rizvi +92-301 8276648



There is no bail under the MPO, so the chargers are arbitrarily withdrawn
against those being released, according to the decision of a Review Board
that sits daily. They are only allowed visitors with written permission from
the Home Department. HRCP's Javed Iqbal Burki who was taken away from his
house without even being allowed to say goodbye to his family, has finally
been able to meet his family after they obtained such permission. Some of
the older counsels are having a very hard time. Mohammad Iqbal Memon is
seriously ill (diabetic) and has been taken to hospital twice in ambulance
already.



Those who are unlikely to be released anytime soon are the leaders. They
include:

-          Abrar Hasan (President Sindh High Court Bar Association, SHCBA)

-          Justice (retd) Rasheed Rizvi (contender for president of SHCBA
elections in the forthcoming elections)

-          Iftikhar Javed Qazi (President of the Karachi Bar Association)

-          Justice (retd) Ab-ul-Inam, former SCBA President, arrested
outside High Court on Nov 10

-          Gulzar, President Malir Bar Association, arrested Nov 10 from his
house



In addition there are those lawyers who don't have strong connections.
"There is no one to look after their interests and their families have no
means of support," says Faisal.



P.S. Justices (rted) Justice Fakhruddin and Nasir Aslam Zahid addressed the
High Court Bar Association this morning. More info later.



SUPPORT THE NON-PCO JUDGES (and socially boycott PCO-judges)

From the list of judges to support, please remove Zia Pervez. He is
reportedly sitting in Islamabad requesting that he be given the oath.



The following names should be added (were recent appointees before Nov 3):

1. Mr Justice Zafar Ahmed Khan Sherwani cell 03332299619

2. Mr Justice Arshad Siraj Memon

3. Mr Justice Salman Ansari

4. Mr Justice Abdul Rasheed Kalwar



TODAY IN ISLAMABAD (Monday 12th Nov:



PROTESTS at:

- 2 pm: ARY office, Street 62, F-7/4

- 3.30 pm: Shaheen Chowk, F-10

- 4 pm: G-9 Markaz



PRESS CONFERENCE: Can Elections under Emergency be Free and Fair? By

Free and Fair Election Network is holding a Press Conference, at Holiday
Inn, Islamabad  4 pm. (contact Afreina Noor, Thematic Group Coordinator,
FAFEN Secretariat, E-mail: secretariat@... - URL: http://www.fafen.org)




'THE EMERGENCY TIMES' -  pdf, can be photocopied, distributed. Email John
Doe theemergencytimes@... for a copy - 7th Issue now out. Also see
pakistanmartiallaw.blogspot.com - Contribute articles, opinions, news and
most importantly, 'EYE-WITNESS ACCOUNTS' at  theemergencytimes@....



- Another website: http://freepakistannow.org/



MAST FM 103 SHUTDOWN: The Asian Human Rights Commission has forwarded MAST
FM103's statement of November 12, 2007 detailing the station's shutdown by
Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority Karachi, Pakistan.



On Nov 3, PEMRA (Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority) officials
invaded the station's Karachi office with a heavy police contingent, forced
it to shut down transmission, and confiscated all broadcast equipment. The
PEMRA officials cited Mast FM103's broadcast of its hourly news bulletins
and current affairs programmes from BBC as the reason. Mast FM103 is the
most popular radio network as per AC Nielson's market survey. It has mass
appeal and a nationwide network penetrating all classes, broadcasting news
and entertainment round the clock. Eight other radio stations are still
broadcasting. Only Mast FM103 was shutdown. PEMRA has in the past also
sealed Mast FM103 Lahore and Karachi stations to silence the independent
editorial content of the radio network.



"The PEMRA amended Ordinance No. LXV of 2007 promulgated along with issuance
of Provisional Constitution Order 2007 is a serious attempt to stifle and
strangulate the freedom of speech, expression and freedom of information of
general public at large. Blanket powers have been given to PEMRA to seize
broadcast or distribution service equipment or seal the premises of the
licensee under the garb of public interest. The violation of amendments by
media channel owner is liable to be punished up to three years imprisonment
or with fine which may extend to ten million rupees or with both. This
amended ordinance is also applicable to entertainment programming in
addition to news and current affairs."



A week later, there is still no conformation about when the broadcast
equipment will be returned. Mast FM103 is also suffering from huge monetary
losses, hardship and is unable to fulfil various obligations towards the
advertisers, and other contractual obligations. We request all independent
voices, to raise the issue through their platforms in the interest of free
speech."



FROM PAKISTAN-INDIA PEOPLE'S SOLIDARITY GROUP, INDIA:



Letter to the Editor:



We unequivocally condemn the imposition of Emergency in Pakistan by General
Musharraf, along with the promulgation of the Provisional Constitution
Order, suspension of fundamental rights, muzzling of the press, and violence
against lawyers, human rights activists, journalists, feminists, artists,
trade unionists and other civil society members.  We condemn the arrest of
the regime's critics and demand their unconditional release.



Musharraf claims to be saving Pakistan from 'suicide,' primarily through
'religious militancy'. Yet, armed militias are being allowed to overrun
Swat. The Shariah has been imposed, Pakistani flags on government buildings
replaced by religious ones, and the Frontier Constabulary in Daroshkhela
town disarmed and disbanded by the militants.  These are grim portents with
roots in the U.S. backed military-mullah alliance of the 1980s. Musharraf
has chosen to wage war against Pakistan's liberals instead of combating
fundamentalist militants.



We express our support and solidarity with Pakistani civil society in its
twin struggle against Musharraf's tyrannical rule and religious
fundamentalism. We demand the immediate lifting of the Emergency and hope
the international community will support the people of Pakistan in their
hour of need and help its transition to genuine democracy.



Signed:



Kamla Bhasin

Praful Bidwai

Amrita Chhachhi

Sonia Jabbar

Ritu Menon.



FROM THE NATIONAL UNION OF JOURNALISTS (INDIA): NUJ (I) strongly condemns
squeeze on Pak press



New Delhi, November 11- The National Union of Journalists (India) strongly
condemns suppression of the Pakistani media in the wake of declaration of
state of Emergency by President Pervez Musharraf.



Shutting down of all private electronic media and severely curbing the
newspapers to prevent them from reporting truthfully and honestly the
situation prevailing in the country is something totally unacceptable, not
only to Pakistani press but the journalistic community anywhere in the
world. For, the freedom of the press is an indivisible fundamental human
right of all.



The NUJ (I) and all Indian journalists stand with the media colleagues in
Pakistan in their this hour of trial and tribulation, as also pay tribute to
their courageous and determined resistence to the dictatorial curbs imposed
on them. The NUJ (I) also condemns expulsion of three foreign journalists
working for the British papers, the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Telegraph
on the plea of publishing an editorial using "foul and abusive" language in
critising the declaration of Emergency.



It urges upon General Musharraf to lift all curbs on the Pakistan press,
revoke expulsion of the British journalists and allow other foreign media to
report freely and factually from the country.



Dr. N.K.Trikha,

President, NUJ (I)





FROM "Bo  Tedards" <bo@...>:



Dear WFDA friends,



Many things have happened since we met in Manila, most notably the dramatic
and inspiring "people  power" movement in Burma, which we are continuing to
follow closely.



Next week, a number of WFDA participants will be heading to Bamako, Mali for
the Fourth Ministerial Meeting of the Community of Democracies.  Sadly, the
Mali government has decided to exclude even civil society representatives
from Taiwan! The rest of the delegation will do its best to raise this
issue, the situation in Burma, and other issues of concern to  Asian
democrats to the assembled governments there.



Meanwhile, the  emergency crisis in Pakistan grows deeper by the day. In
solidarity with the  many Pakistanis who are standing up to dictatorship,
the WFDA Steering  Committee has issued a statement; please find the full
text below.



In solidarity,



WFDA Secretariat



+++++++++



WFDA STATEMENT: ASIAN DEMOCRATS EXPRESS CONCERN ABOUT CRACKDOWN IN  PAKISTAN




The political situation in Pakistan, which has not had a  stable civilian
government in many years, has taken a decided turn for the  worse. The
emergency declared by General Musharraf on 3 November is a grave  setback
for the reconstruction of constitutional rule, and a tremendous blow  to the
rule of law. Although ostensibly intended to fight the so-called war  on
terror, by reducing the space for peaceful political expression, his  actions
are more likely to have the effect of promoting extremism on both  sides.



We call on General Musharraf to restore the constitution and  the remaining
institutions of democracy and the rule of law, notably  Parliament and the
Supreme Court, and enable them to function properly. We  also call for:



1) the lifting of restrictions on the media, as well  as those on peaceful
assembly;



2) the immediate release of human  rights defenders who have been detained
or placed under house arrest, such  as Asma Jahangir and her colleagues at
the Human Rights Commission of  Pakistan, as well as many leaders of
national and state Bar Associations;  and



3) the release and reinstatement of Chief Justice Iftikhar  Mohammad
Chaudhry and the rest of the Supreme Court Justices;



4)  General Musharraf to swiftly carry out his pledge to resign his military
office; and



5) political dialogue among all major political parties,  in order to create
the conditions for fresh elections and the full  restoration of
parliamentary sovereignty.



Finally, we express our  firm solidarity with the Pakistani people,
especially the many democracy  advocates who are bravely standing up for
their rights, and we reaffirm our  hope that their determination will bring
about real democracy in their  country soon.



FROM WOMEN LIVING UNDER MUSLIM LAWS:

Sent: Saturday, November 10, 2007 11:44 PM

Subject: [Wluml-news-en] URGENT: Pakistan: Letter to UN Special Rapporteurs
Urging Action Against Martial Law



Dear friends,



Women Living Under Muslim Laws is issuing a letter to UN Special Rapporteurs
and UN Human Rights Bodies expresses our alarm and grave concern regarding
the mass arrests, ill-treatment and flagrant violations of the human rights
of members of the judiciary, the legal profession and civil society that is
currently taking place in Pakistan. We urge them to appeal to General
Musharraf to restore the constitution, the judiciary, the media, and to end
all arrests and violence against peaceful protests.



Since General Pervaiz Musharraf's imposition of emergency rule on 3 November
2007 there have been daily reports of judges, lawyers, activists, opposition
figures and general citizens being arbitrarily and, we believe, unlawfully
detained under provisions that allow detention without charge or trial, held
incommunicado and at risk of maltreatment, and even torture, by government
security forces.



We are aware that all constitutional safeguards, including guarantees on
life and liberty, have been suspended. In addition, the Chief Justice has
been summarily dismissed for opposing the emergency order, private news
channels have been curtailed and restrictions have been imposed on the print
and electronic media. It is unacceptable that all this is occurring in the
name of national security when actions indicate this is a ploy on General
Musharraf's part to illegitimately retain political power.



For further information and for a sample letter you can send to UN Special

Rapporteurs and human rights bodies, please see here:

http://wluml.org/english/actionsfulltxt.shtml?cmd[156]=i-156-558420



In solidarity,



WLUML

International Coordination Office



FROM BRAZIL, FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 12, 2007



A Joint Statement from a group of NGOs that attended the seventh
International Colloquium on Human Rights in Sao Paolo, Brazil, organised by
NGO Conectas

WORLD: Activists call for the restoration of democracy and respect for human
rights in Pakistan



We the undersigned wish to express our grave concern regarding the ongoing
political and human rights crisis in Pakistan. As we meet in Sao Paolo,
Brazil for the seventh International Colloquium on Human Rights, organised
by NGO Conectas, which aims to strengthen human rights in the South, we note
with shock the ongoing crackdown in Pakistan, in which our colleagues are
being targeted and fundamental rights have been suspended. Please click here
to download the statement prepared by Conectas in English and Portuguese.



On November 3, 2007, General Musharraf unconstitutionally imposed a state of
emergency in Pakistan, three days before the Supreme Court risked ruling
against the validity of his October 6 presidential election victory. General
Musharraf claims that emergency rule was required to curb terrorism and
control an unruly judiciary. Parliamentary elections scheduled for January
could now also be delayed by up to a year.

Under a Provisional Constitutional Order replacing the country's
constitution, fundamental rights have been suspended, notably: the right to
security of the person; the freedoms of movement, expression and assembly;
and the protection from indefinite detention without charge. Those arrested
can be denied access to lawyers. The Supreme Court has been banned from
rescinding the emergency order.



An estimated 3500 lawyers, 500 human rights defenders, 100 political workers
and 12 journalists have been arrested during raids on courts, lawyers' homes
and NGOs, and the repression of demonstrations. Pakistan's Chief Justice,
Mr. Iftekhar Choudhry, was forcibly removed from the Supreme Court and is
under house arrest, as are 14 Supreme Court and 46 high court judges. The
press is being severely censored, with at least two major FM radio  stations
and four television channels having been attacked and prevented from
broadcasting. At least 15 prominent political leaders have also been
arrested. Around 70 human rights activists from the Human Rights Commission
of Pakistan were arrested during a meeting in Lahore, while some 30
activists have been beaten in Islamabad. Ms. Asma Jahangir, the United
Nations Special Rapporteur on the freedom of religion or belief, is under
house arrest for 90 days. Ms. Hina Jilani, the UN Special Representative of
the Secretary! -General on the situation of human rights defenders, has been
threatened with arrest if she returns to the country. There are significant
fears that further arrests, ill-treatment and bloodshed will follow against
all those that continue to resist the illegal actions of the military
government.



We hereby express our solidarity with Pakistan's people at this difficult
time and strongly condemn the illegal, unconstitutional and brutal actions
being taken by General Musharraf. We call for the immediate withdrawal of
the state of emergency, for the release of all persons arrested during this
crisis, for the constitution, fundamental freedoms and the judiciary to be
restored, and for the holding of free and fair elections as planned in
January 2008. We elcome the Netherlands' decision to halt aid to General
Musharraf and urge all actors, notably the United States, the European Union
and the United Nations, to take the necessary measures required to ensure
that democracy and the protection of human rights are immediately guaranteed
in Pakistan. In particular, we urge the United Nations' General Assembly to
suspend Pakistan from the organisation's Human Rights Council.



Akemi Kamimura, Conectas Direitos Humanos, Brazil

Amita Dhanda Nalsar, Hyderabad University of Law, India

Basil Fernando, Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong

Carla Marina da Paixão Félix Magalhães, Acção Humana, Angola

Carlos Andres Perez, CEDHUL, Colombia

Catharina Nakashima, Conectas Direitos Humanos, Brazil

Cecília Gregória Cassapi Augusto,Associação Construindo Comunidades,Angola

Chinelo Chinwe-Ekene Aroh, Public and Private Rights Watch, Nigeria

Cristian Hernán Gómez Navarro,Corporación para el Desarrollo del Oriente
Compromiso,Colombia

Darío Esteban Abdala, ANDHES, Argentina

Denise Conselheiro, Conectas, Brazil

Ermelinda Lucrecia K. Muachiteca, Associação Construindo Cominidades, Angola

Estella Libardi de Souza,Sociedade Paraense de Defesa dos Direitos Humanos
(SDDH),Brazil

Florentino Joaquim I! nácio, Associação Luta pela VIHda, Angola

Gabriela Yapor,Instituto de Solidaridad y Desarollo (ISODE),Uruguay

Gerardo Saravia López de Castilla,Instituto de Defensa Legal (IDL),Peru

Godinho Cristóvão, Associação Justiça, Paz e Democracia (AJPD), Angola

Gugu Ngobese Thabethe, Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA),
South Africa

Isabel Coral Cordero,Centro de Promoción y Desarrollo Poblacional
(CEPRODEP),Peru

Isabella Henriques, Instituto Alana, Brazil

Itai Zimunya, Open Society - OSISA, Zimbabwe

Javier Palummo,Comité de Derechos del Niño - Uruguay,Uruguay

Jeudy Oeung,Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee (CHRAC),Cambodia

José Rosario Marroquín Farrera ,Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Agustín
Pro Juárez A.C,México

Juana Kweitel, Conectas Direitos Humanos, Brazil

Julie Gromellon, FIDH, Sw! itzerland

Julie Middleton,CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Par ticipation,South
Africa

Jureuda Duarte Guerra,Movimento de Luta Antimanicomial (MLA),Brasil

Lucas Muntingh, CSPRI, South Africa

Maira Solange Hari, Fórum Mulher, Mozambique

Mariana Parra, Conectas Direitos Humanos, Brazil

Marysol Francogoes, Conectas Direitos Humanos, Brazil

Michael Anthony, Asian Legal Resource Centre, Hong Kong

Nana Ngema, SA Treatment Action Campaign, South Africa

Nermine Wally,Euromed Role of Women in Economic Life,Egypt

Neusa das Dores Pereira,Centro de Documentação e Informação Coisa de
Mulher,Brasil

Noé Dias Mateus ,Rede Nacional de Pesoas Vivendo com o VIH,Angola

Nusair Samara,Agricultural Development Association (PARC),Palestine

Raphael Garcia, Conectas Direitos Humanos, Brazil

Renata de Sauza, Brazil

Rodrigo Salvador Lachi, ILANUD,Brasil

Rosa Beltran, Conectas Dereitos Humanos, Brazil/US

Rosario Irupe Gonzales Icaza,Instituto de! Defensa Legal (IDL),Peru

Santosh Babu Sigdel, Freedom Forum, Nepal

Severine Catca, France

Sharad Sharma,World Comics India,India

Thamsanga Ngenya, Centre for Public Participation, South Africa

Valcirana Vieira da Maia, Coletivo de Mulheres Negras Esperança Garcia,
Brazil

Vinicius Anave Rodrigues Pinto, Conectas Direitos Humanos, Brazil

Zeka Alberto,Legal Assistance Centre,Namibia



THE FOLLOWING THREE ITEMS FROM socialist_pakistan_news@yahoogroups.com (SPN
- thanks KSK)



PROTEST IN MANCHESTER, 9th November @ 2:30 pm



- The University of Manchetser Student Union organized an impressive show of
concern in Manchester infront of Pakistan's Consulate Office, Manchester,
UK. More than 50 participants (on a very short notice) including students of
Pakistani origin and others, and representatives of political parties (I
don't want to name them) actively participated in the demonstration to
'protest against brutal Martial Law' and solidarity with civil society,
lawyers, judges, students, teachers, and every patriotic Pakistani taking
part in resistence to martial law in the country.



- We will soon send pictures and videos while the Student Union will
organize soon a seminar series revolving around 'Abscence of Democeracy,
Rule of Law, and Constitution'.  Student Union expects a number of people
joining in the seminar series.



- My dear friends - we the Pakistanis living abroad are trying our best to
support the cause of restoration of democracy, restoration of Judicial
system, and release of all prisoner and those who are under house-arrest.



We will the WIN Inshallah - no one can stop us!



Regards,



Zubair Faisal Abbasi

University of Manchester, UK



A WEEKEND OF PROTESTS IN SWEDEN



Comrades and friends,

Pakistani community in Sweden has planned protests on this weekend in Lund,
Stockholm, Karlskrona, and Linkoping.



Another protest demo is planned on Nov 17 in Stockholm. Also, we are
discussing here to do a co-ordinated, syncronised demo across Sweden.



It is mostly Paksitani students here organising these demonstrations in
collaboration with left activists having Pakistani background.



Of late, Sweden has been pretty generous in granting student visas to South
Asians hence student community from Pakistan is reasonably big in size
(according to Swedish standsrds).



Many would-be demonstrators on weekend would demonstrate or hold a placard
first time in their lives. The brave struggle in Paksitan by activists and
advocates has electrifies expat Pakistanis, it seems. Demonstrations are
held across western Europe.



Meantime, Scottish Socialist Party in Scotland and Democratic Socialist
Party (both sympthetic to Labour Party Pakistan) in Australia have held
demonstrations.



Labour Party will try to co-ordinate a world wide day of action in few weeks
time.



Farooq Sulehria, Sweden

Mob 00 46 709 305 436



SOLIDARITY PICKET AT PAKISTAN CONSULATE, GLASGOW, SCOTLAND



pamcurrie99 <pamcurrie99@...> wrote:

Solidarity greetings to all of our comrades in Pakistan from the Scottish
Socialist Party.



We will be having a 'restore democracy' solidarity picket from 4.30pm  this
Friday, 9 November, at the Pakistan Consulate, Norfolk St, Glasgow. Anyone
in the area is welcome to join us.



Regards



Pam Currie

National Secretary

Scottish Socialist Party



PRESS RELEASE FROM US SENATE:



http://biden.senate.gov/newsroom/details.cfm?id=287157&&



November 8, 2007

Press Release

Kerry, Biden Introduce Pakistan Resolution Condemning State of Emergency

Resolution Links Some Military Aid to Musharaff Reinstating Constitution,
Proceeding with January Elections

Washington, DC -- Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), Chairman of the Senate Foreign
Relations Subcommittee on Near East and South and Central Asian Affairs,
which includes Pakistan, and Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. Joe
Biden (D-DE) today introduced a resolution, urging President Musharraf to
end Pakistan's state of emergency and reinstate the Constitution. The
Kerry-Biden Resolution urges that United States military assistance to
Pakistan should be subjected to careful review. The resolution asserts that
assistance for the purchase of certain weapons systems that arenot directly
related to the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban should be suspended if
President Musharraf does not revoke the state of emergency, restore the
Constitution, follow through on the pledge to relinquish his position as
Chief of the Army and allow for free and fair elections to be held in
accordance with the timeframe announced today by the Government of Pakistan.


"It is important to send a strong message to Pakistan that we will hold them
to their word when it comes to getting back on the path to civilian
democracy," said Sen. Kerry, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations
Subcommittee on Near East and South and Central Asian Affairs. "The
Resolution I have introduced with Senator Biden today provides a real
incentive for General Musharaff to restore the rule of law and move forward
with crucial democratic reforms while preserving our core interest in
fighting terrorists in Pakistan."

"This resolution sends a strong message on the need for a speedy return to
the democratic path – a message that I sincerely hope President Musharraf
will take to heart. Musharraf should immediately release the lawyers,
journalists, and human rights activists he's arrested since imposing
de-facto martial law; restore the independent judiciary he's subverted by
firing Supreme Court justices unwilling to sign a loyalty oath to him; make
good on his pledge to hold free and fair elections in the legal timeframe;
and restore rule of law and constitutional government to Pakistan," said
Sen. Biden, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "This
resolution backs up the Administration's statement that military aid for
Pakistan will now be placed under review. It also puts Musharraf on notice
that if the current crisis continues and President Bush declines to take
action, Congress will."

Below is the text of the Kerry-Biden resolution:

Expressing the Sense of the Senate on the declaration of a state of
emergency in Pakistan.

Whereas, a democratic, stable, and prosperous Pakistan that is a full and
reliable partner in the struggle against Al Qaeda and the Taliban and a
responsible steward of its nuclear weapons and technology is a vital
national security interest of the United States and essential to combating
international terrorism;

Whereas, General Pervez Musharraf became the President of Pakistan following
a military coup in October 1999;

Whereas, President Musharraf dismissed Pakistan's Chief Justice Iftikhar
Chaudhry on March 9, 2007, resulting in massive street protests and a
unanimous decision by the Supreme Court of Pakistan to clear him of any
wrongdoing and reinstate him on July 20, 2007;

Whereas, the Government of Pakistan announced on September 18, 2007 that if
re-elected president, General Musharraf would resign his position as Chief
of the Army by November 15, 2007;

Whereas, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shaukat Aziz, called this
announcement "a clear reflection of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's firm
belief in democracy.";

Whereas, an amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan allowing President
Musharraf to hold the Government of Pakistan's top civilian and military
leadership positions expires on December 31, 2007;

Whereas, President Musharraf and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto
conducted extensive negotiations on a power-sharing arrangement that would
allow Ms. Bhutto to return to Pakistan and lead the Pakistan People's Party
in parliamentary elections scheduled for January 15, 2008;

Whereas, President Musharraf was elected to another term by the parliament
of Pakistan on October 6, 2007;

Whereas, the Supreme Court of Pakistan has been reviewing the
constitutionality of this election and intended to issue a ruling in
November 2007;

Whereas, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif returned to Pakistan on
September 10, 2007, and was immediately forced to leave the country in
contradiction of a ruling by the Supreme Court;

Whereas, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan on
October 18, 2007 after more than eight years in exile, and was immediately
targeted in a suicide bombing by extremists that left at least 140 people
dead and over 500 injured in Karachi, Pakistan;

Whereas, on August 10, 2007, United States Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice personally requested that President Musharraf refrain from suspending
the Constitution, and on November 1, 2007 again reiterated to President
Musharraf U.S. opposition to any "extra-constitutional" measures;

Whereas, over the past six years the United States has provided more than
$10 billion in aid to Pakistan, of which approximately 60% was Coalition
Support Funds designed to reimburse Pakistan for counter-terrorism efforts,
15% was for security assistance to the military, 15% was for general budget
support, and approximately 10% was for humanitarian assistance; and

Whereas, Admiral William Fallon, the senior U.S. military commander in the
Middle East and Southwest Asia, advised General Musharraf on November 2,
2007 that emergency rule might place that aid at risk;

Whereas, on November 3, 2007, General Musharraf, in his role as Chief of the
Army, declared a state of emergency, suspended the Constitution, dismissed
Pakistan's Chief Justice Chaudhry, and initiated a nation-wide crackdown on
political opposition, the media, and the courts of Pakistan resulting in the
arrest of over one thousand political opponents;

Whereas, the White House declared that imposition of emergency rule was
"deeply disturbing," and Secretary of State Rice said that the United States
would "have to review the situation with aid" in light of these
developments.

Whereas, on November 7, 2007, President George W. Bush spoke with President
Musharraf and conveyed the message that "we believe strongly in elections,
and that you ought to have elections soon, and you need to take off your
uniform."

Whereas, on November 8, 2007, the Government of Pakistan announced that
parliamentary elections would be held by February 15, 2008, and that
President Musharraf would relinquish his position as Chief of the Army prior
to being sworn in as President.

Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate—

(1) to condemn the decision by President Musharraf to declare a state of
emergency, suspend the Constitution, dismiss the Supreme Court, and initiate
a nation-wide crackdown on political opposition, the media, and the courts;

(2) to call on President Musharraf to revoke the state of emergency, respect
the rule of law and immediately release political detainees, restore the
Constitution, freedom of the press and judicial independence, and reinstate
all dismissed members of the Supreme Court;

(3) to call upon President Musharraf to honor his commitment to relinquish
his position as Chief of the Army, allow free and fair parliamentary
elections in accordance with the schedule mandated by the Constitution,
establish an independent commission to guarantee that such elections are
free and fair, and permit full and unfettered independent monitoring of such
elections;

(4) that the Government of the United States should provide whatever
assistance is necessary to facilitate such free and fair elections,
including by supporting independent election monitoring organizations and
efforts;

(5) to call upon the Government of Pakistan to conduct a full investigation
into the attempted assassination of former Prime Minister Bhutto and provide
her and other political leaders with all necessary security to ensure their
personal safety; and

(6) that United States military assistance to Pakistan should be subjected
to careful review, and that assistance for the purchase of certain weapons
systems not directly related to the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban
should be suspended if President Musharraf does not revoke the state of
emergency and restore the Constitution, relinquish his position as Chief of
the Army, and allow for free and fair elections to be held in accordance
with the announced timeframe.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Lahore is once again the centre of excitement. Yesterday, some 3,500
police officers deployed around the city arrested hundreds of PPP
workers. Riot police officers were outside government buildings here
as well, in anticipation of protests by PPP supporters. Benazir has
called for Musharraf to resign and vowed that her `long march' will
continue. Many more human rights activists and lawyers in the city
have been arrested over the last couple of days.

IPS REPORTS ON PAKISTAN: Scroll down for my report filed to IPS today
about Musharraf under pressure (unedited), up on www.ipsnews.net
soon. Two very timely stories on Pakistan that mine intersect with -
the implications of yesterday's Commonwealth statement: PAKISTAN:
Join the Army, Stage a Coup, Retire as President -
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40026
POLITICS: Gagged at Home, Pakistanis Take to Cyberspace (by Abid
Aslam) - http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40035
The Pakistan Trouble link at IPS www.ipsnews.net has several others.

VOA's Aaj Shaam today includes interviews with Benazir, Munawar
Hassan,Ahsan Iqbal, Imran Khan, Ahmed Rashid (author Taliban) and
Hussain Haqqani. To listen to the program, go the following link and
click on AAJ SHAAM, window media. The program will be archived for 24
hours and replaced by the new one the next day -
http://www.voanews.com/urdu/New-Radio-Programs.cfm

Musharraf's Army Losing Ground in Insurgent Areas  - By Griff Witte
and Imtiaz Ali
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2007/11/12/AR2007111202043.html?hpid=artslot

AITZAZ AHSAN: Lawyer's Long Fight for Democracy Puts Him in Familiar
Place: Jail excerpt: In the view of some here, the grand schemes of
the political and military leaders in both nations have played out at
great personal cost to Pakistanis like Mr. Ahsan. His wife, Bushra,
who was under house arrest during General Zia's rule for protesting
in favor of women's rights, said she used to remind American
diplomats in the 1980s that "your military aid to Pakistan is hostile
to the people of Pakistan."
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/13/world/asia/13lawyer.html?
_r=1&n=Top/News/World/Countries%20and%
20Territories/Pakistan&oref=slogin -

SATIRE: Being Pervez Musharraf
What's it like to be Pakistan's ruler? By Bret Stephens
Tuesday, November 13, 2007 12:01 a.m. EST
Imagine yourself as Pervez Musharraf, the 64-year-old military ruler
of Pakistan...
http://opinionjournal.com/columnists/bstephens/?id=110010856

UPDATES RE: ARRESTS, SUPPORT:

LAWYER AFRASIAB KHATTAK, 15 OTHERS ARRESTED IN PESHAWAR - Former HRCP
Chairperson & prominent lawyer Afrasiab Khattak (Awami National
Party) along with fifteen other party activists, including Hasham
Babar (donor of the BKS Mathra school) arrested in Peshawar today
(Nov 13) and sent to Central Jail Peshawar (thanks AH)

ARRESTED LAWYER ILL IN KASUR JAIL, `B' CLASS REQUESTED - Aftab Ahmad
Sherazi seriously ill in Kasur Jail. It is requested, humbly, to
provide B Category in Jail according to law – Adv. Azhar Siddique
(sms via Anis Mansoori)

THE LAW SOCIETY OF UPPER CANADA today issued a news release
expressing its concern regarding the current political situation in
Pakistan. The actions of President General Pervez Musharraf are
blatant violations of fundamental human rights under international
law and unacceptable attacks on the independence of the judiciary,
the bar and the rule of law - http://www.lsuc.on.ca/index.cfm (thanks
Hamid Bhashani in Toronto)

Below, my report of today.

Nov 13, 2007

POLITICS-PAKISTAN: Pressures mount on Musharraf

Beena Sarwar

KARACHI (IPS): With his army losing ground to the insurgents on the
western border, his potential political partner Benazir Bhutto
joining in protests against the emergency and unrest spreading on the
ground in Pakistan's urban centres, the pressures are mounting on
President General Pervez Musharraf to step down from power.

However, American President George W. Bush, while saying he would
like Musharraf to end the emergency, has stressed the need to
continue cooperating with Pakistan in the `war on terror'. Talking to
reporters at his ranch on Nov 10, he said that Musharraf "fully
understands the dangers of Al-Qaeda". So too, does former Prime
Minister Benazir Bhutto, added the President.

There has been widespread condemnation of the emergency imposed on
Nov 3 that critics term as `martial law', since Musharraf enacted it
in his capacity as Army Chief rather than as President.

Denunciations have come in from all quarters – bar associations
including the powerful American Bar Association, Nelson Mandela and
the Group of Elders, the European Union and the Commonwealth
Ministerial Action Group (CMAG), which has threatened to suspend
Pakistan if it failed to implement certain measures by Nov 22 when
the CMAG next meets. These measures include lifting of the emergency
and curbs on the media, and restoring the judiciary.

Such pressures are believed to be behind Musharraf's announcement
that general elections will be held by January 9, 2008 (rather than
mid-February as he had proclaimed earlier). "Such elections would not
be credible unless the state of emergency is removed and
constitutional rights of the people, political parties and
independence of the judiciary are restored," said CMAG in its
statement of Nov 12.

The Fair and Free Elections Network (FAFEN), an independent Islamabad-
based coalition of thirty leading Pakistani civil society
organizations, expressed similar concerns in its position paper of
Nov 12. All the major civil society organizations in Pakistan support
this position and demand the immediate lifting of the emergency and
restoration of the constitution, judiciary and fundamental rights.

Musharraf has asked western powers not to judge Pakistan by their
standards, and appears as scornful of local civil society
organizations as of continuing protests by students, lawyers and
judiciary. He appeared unapologetic, even belligerent, on Sunday
during his first press conference, eight days after promulgating the
Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) that suspended the
Constitution and required the judiciary to take fresh oath.

An emergency Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar
Ahmed Choudhry declared the PCO order null and void and ruled that no
judge of the Supreme Court or High Courts could take oath under it.
Armed security forces escorted the dissenting judges out. Their
services have been `terminated' but they remain defiant under house
arrest, supported by an unprecedented number of fellow judges,
including the Chief Justices of all four provincial High Courts.

These judges have also been sent packing after refusing to take oath
under the PCO. Although Musharraf dismissed them as `irrelevant',
many `non-PCO' judges are still getting calls from senior government
functionaries pressurizing them to take oath, said one judge.

Hundreds of lawyers, including retired judges of the High Courts,
have been arrested in the crackdown following the Bar Associations'
call to protest and boycott courts headed by `PCO judges'. The
government has admitted that over 500 lawyers were arrested in the
two largest cities of Pakistan alone. The BBC estimates the country-
wide number to be closer to 3,000. Since then, many more have been
arrested, including former HRCP Chairperson Afrasiab Khattak in
Peshawar on Nov 13.

"The Proclamation of Emergency contravenes the Constitution," wrote
prominent constitutional lawyer Qazi Faez Isa in anop-ed on Nov 10,
the day newspapers reported that the government had amended Army Act
of 1952 to allow the army to court-martial civilians. An underlying
reason for this amendment, say analysts, is the apparent inability of
the existing anti-terrorist courts to hold proper or speedy trials of
those involved in acts of terrorism or militancy.

Meanwhile, ordinary citizens around the country are visiting the `non-
PCO' judges with flowers, garlands, and thank you notes, and
spontaneously naming popular cross-roads after them. "They are paying
a heavy price for their defiance," said Kausar S.K of the Women's
Peace Commission, who has made several such visits under the umbrella
organization the People's Resistance, a civil society coalition
against the martial law.

These judges were made to empty their chambers and the phones of some
were disconnected. They are not allowed to visit the High Courts, and
the government has said they will not be allowed to practice law,
says the People's Resistance.

"It is alright for us younger lawyers," said Faisal Siddiqi, who is
helping colleagues in Karachi Central Jail. "But for these older
judges and lawyers, who have spent their lives building up their
practices, it will be very difficult to start from scratch. We salute
them."

After groups in Islamabad and Lahore were prevented from meeting the
judges, some 500 people gathered at a public spot in Islamabad on
Monday to light candles in solidarity with Rana Bhagwandas, the only
Hindu judge in Pakistan's Supreme Court.
Bhagwandas was on the anti-PCO bench of Nov 3 and like his fellow
judges has been under house arrest at his official residence in
Islamabad. One group also visited his family in Karachi with sweets
to show solidarity on the occasion of Diwali, the Hindu festival of
lights last weekend, as Bhagwandas was not allowed to visit his
family.

Since civil society organizations can drum up only limited numbers
for street protests, they hardly post a threat to the regime. But the
ban on public gatherings under the emergency means that those
attending protests and rallies risk being beaten and arrested by the
police. Even so, citizens' groups around the country are engaging in
vigils, `flash protests' and other symbolic actions like wearing
black arm-bands. They have been joined by students from private
institutions, including high-school students from Islamabad's elite,
traditionally apolitical schools.

Police baton-charged and then detained 48 such students engaged in a
silent protest in Islamabad on Monday. The students, aged 12-18, some
in school uniform, were charged with violating Section 144, which
prohibits the gathering of more than four persons in a public place.
They were released after their parents signed `good behaviour' bonds
on their behalf.

"The students' resolve has only been strengthened as a result of this
incident – we will continue to voice our opinions, as is our right,
in a peaceful and non-violent manner," wrote `Z.H.' in the widely
circulated student-run online `The Emergency Times' (issue #8),
launched on Nov 5 (online version at:
pakistanmartiallaw.blogspot.com).

The Islamabad students have announced another "Protest against
Martial Rule" on Nov 14, asking protestors to wear a black
band "against state oppression, the suspension of civil rights, the
treatment meted out to judges, journalists and students" – and
to "bring a flower to pay homage to the judges, lawyers, journalists,
politicians, human rights activists, teachers and students who have
been arrested, detained or assaulted for standing up to this illegal
and oppressive regime."

The ET posted another comment by a `student who wants to join the
movement' but was prevented from doing so by the administration of a
premier, government-run business school in Karachi. After students
registered their silent protest with black bands on their arms and
foreheads, the administration said that "any student found even
wearing black a ribbon as protest against emergency will be expelled
without a hearing before the disciplinary committee," wrote the
student. "Students in Karachi want to be part of the students'
movement but the administrations are not letting this happen" (ET
#7).

With independent television news still blocked, such protestors get
their messages across to the world via the Internet and cell phone.
There is currently no restriction on such communication or on the
English language newspapers, although activists believe they are
being closely monitored.

Analysts say that it seems Musharraf is more concerned about keeping
news from the non-English speaking public to prevent them from
joining the protests.

Students at non-elite institutions like Karachi University were
unaware of the arrests and detentions taking place around the country
but endorsed a small protest by the University Teachers Forum (UTF)
on Tuesday. A dozen or so teachers from various departments stood
silently behind a black banner calling for the restoration of the
Constitution, the judiciary and human rights.

"The emergency has given a bad name to Pakistan around the world,"
said Saira Sheikh a student of the Economics Department who was
passing by. "But we don't know what's going on around the country
because there are no news channels, no information," added her friend
Hira.

The students left as police rangers from a parked van nearby started
coming towards the protest. The rangers did not engage with the
demonstrators. "They were probably told to leave us alone," said one
teacher. UTF convenor, Abdul Qadeer of the Applied Physics
department, attributed the low turnout to the fear of arrest and to
de-politicisation of the campuses.

Pakistan Peoples' Party workers demonstrating on the call of their
Chairperson former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, have also been
baton-charged and arrested in their thousands, claims the PPP. Bhutto
had announced a `long march' on Nov 13 from the eastern city of
Multan to the Punjab provincial capital Lahore. On Monday, she was
served with a seven-day house arrest order to prevent her from
leading the protest.

"This darkness at high noon cannot last. The judges by not taking
oath, the lawyers and the civil society by resisting have already
shown the way. The media is standing by them shoulder to shoulder.
This is one battle the General is sure to lose," predicted former
senator Shafqat Mahmood.

However, with Washington determined to back Musharraf
unconditionally, this darkness, may be rather more long-drawn out
than most Pakistanis would like, say analysts.

(ends)

My latest IPS report summarizing the current pressures on Musharraf -
POLITICS-PAKISTAN: Civil Society Mounts Pressure on Musharraf
(includes interviews of Karachi University students & Emergency
Telegraph bulletins): http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40049
(text below)

OTHER UPDATES -  SUPPORT FOR PAKISTANI LAWYERS & JUDGES:

HARVARD LAW SCHOOL HONOUR FOR CJ CHAUDHRY:
Following last week's military crackdown in Pakistan and the
detention of hundreds of lawyers, the Harvard Law School Association
has decided to award Pakistani Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry its
highest honor: The Harvard Law School Medal of Freedom. Chaudhry was
detained after he convened the Pakistani Supreme Court to declare the
current state of emergency imposed by General Pervez Musharraf to be
null and void.
http://www.law.harvard.edu/news/2007/11/13_pakistan.php

"CHAUDHRY, NOT DOGAR, IS CJ": Benazir Bhutto had a few days ago
called for the sacked judges to be restored (yesterday she upped the
ante by calling for Musharraf to step down). Others have made
similiar statements in support of the non-PCO judges, including the
Executive Council of the LUMS Students Action Committee which has
objected to the media referring to Mr. Hameed Dogar as the Chief
Justice of Pakistan. This practice "should be strongly opposed
considering that the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) had been
declared as illegal by the Supreme Court before its judges were put
under house arrest. All local and international News media
organizations are forthwith urged to stop referring to Mr Hameed
Dogar as the Chief Justice of Pakistan. He was placed in this
position through an illegal action by the Chief of Army Staff, an
action which was struck down in a unanimous verdict by a seven member
bench of the Supreme Court headed by the Honorable Chief Justice of
Pakistan Mr Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry" (thanks KSK)

BAR ASSOCATION CREATES FUND TO SUPPORT LAWYERS - The Sindh High Court
Bar Association (SHCBA) has set up an emergency fund for needy
lawyers participating in the struggle for the rule of law. The
proposal for establishing the fund was put forward by former Supreme
Court judge Wajihuddin Ahmed, who presided over Tuesday's meeting of
the association's general body… The SHCBA also decided to extend the
boycott till Nov http://www.dawn.com/2007/11/14/local4.htm

MORE STATEMENTS OF SUPPORT (21) from various US bar associations in
support of the lawyers and judges in Pakistan at:
http://www.abanet.org/barserv/resourcepages/pakistanresponse.shtml.
Nancy Bohrer who sent the link writes, "They are all a little
different, and very heartening. I urge you to share these expressions
of support with Pakistan's lawyers and judges. It is important for
them to know that their brethern in the legal profession stand with
them in a very troubling time."

SUPPORT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN PAKISTAN:
WASHINGTON (AFP) - A dozen US human rights groups on Tuesday urged
President George W. Bush to cut off military aid to Pakistan if
President Pervez Musharraf refuses to end emergency rule and release
politicians, jurists and rights activists.
Full story at:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071113/pl_afp/uspakistanrightsmilitary
Excerpt from their letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice:
"We strongly urge you to send a clear, consistent, and public message
to the Government of Pakistan. We also urge you to call for the
immediate release of those detained or held under house arrest, a
rescinding of the emergency orders and any restrictions on press
freedom, a full restoration of the constitution, and the
reinstatement of all judges who have been removed from their
positions. Without such measures, free and fair elections will not be
possible."

SUPPORTPAKISTAN.ORG: A Silicon Valley initiative involving Dilawar
Syed, President of OPEN SV (http://opensiliconvalley.com) and also an
executive at Yahoo!,  and a number of other well heeled Pakistan
entrepreneurs in the Silicon Valley incl Zain Jeewanjee, Dr Mobashar
Rana (MD), Dr Waheed Qureshi (PhD, CEO/founder Zenprise.com).
SupportPakistan.org (http://supportpakistan.wordpress.com) is an
advocacy group formed to mobilize public opinion and shape
policy. "Please take a few minutes to visit the site. We have made
available specific tools and resources you can use to take action
(the website will soon be accessible from supportpakistan.org)."

In a recent email introducing SupportPakistan, Dilawar Syed called
the current situation "perhaps the most severe crisis since 1971… The
choice for the nation, and the world is clear. Pakistan either
reverts to a status quo that has held this mighty nation back for
much of its existence, or we seize the opportunity and join the
campaign for full and unreserved democracy and an independent
judiciary. How we respond today will determine Pakistan's future,
and, perhaps even its integrity as a nation. Members of the civil
society, being increasingly joined by the political forces, are
showing us the way."

BOSTON PROTEST – MORE PIX: From Zahra Syed, a photographer at Emerson
College.- http://www.flickr.com/photos/zahrasyed/ -
PLEASE DO NOT USE THEM FOR PRESS ETC WITHOUT HER CONSENT –
email: zahra_syed@... (thanks Arooj)

POLITICS-PAKISTAN: Civil Society Mounts Pressure on Musharraf
By Beena Sarwar

KARACHI, Nov 14 (IPS) - With his army losing ground to insurgents on
the western border, his potential political partner Benazir Bhutto
joining protests against the emergency and unrest spreading in
Pakistan's urban centres, pressure is mounting on President Gen.
Pervez Musharraf to step down.

However, United States President George W. Bush, while saying he
would like Musharraf to end the emergency, has stressed the need to
continue cooperating with Pakistan in the `war on terror'. Talking to
reporters at his ranch on Nov. 10, he said that Musharraf "fully
understands the dangers of al-Qaeda". So too, does former prime
minister Benazir Bhutto, added Bush.

There has been widespread condemnation of the emergency imposed on
Nov. 3 that critics term as `martial law', since Musharraf enacted it
in his capacity as army chief rather than as President.

Denunciations have come in from all quarters. Bar associations
including the powerful American Bar Association, Nelson Mandela and
the Group of Elders, the European Union and the Commonwealth
Ministerial Action Group (CMAG), which has threatened to suspend
Pakistan if it failed to implement certain measures by Nov 22 when
the CMAG next meets. These measures include lifting of the emergency
and curbs on the media, and restoring the judiciary.

Such pressures are believed to be behind Musharraf's announcement
that general elections will be held by Jan. 9, 2008 (rather than mid-
February as he had proclaimed earlier). "Such elections would not be
credible unless the state of emergency is removed and constitutional
rights of the people, political parties and independence of the
judiciary are restored," said CMAG in its statement of Nov. 12.

The Fair and Free Elections Network (FAFEN), an independent Islamabad-
based coalition of 30 leading Pakistani civil society organisations,
expressed similar concerns in its position paper of Nov. 12. All the
major civil society organisations in Pakistan support this position
and demand the immediate lifting of the emergency and restoration of
the constitution, judiciary and fundamental rights.

Musharraf has asked western powers not to judge Pakistan by their
standards, and appears as scornful of local civil society
organisations as of continuing protests by students, lawyers and
judiciary. He appeared unapologetic, even belligerent, on Sunday
during his first press conference, eight days after promulgating the
Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) that suspended the
Constitution and required the judiciary to take fresh oath.

An emergency Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar
Ahmed Choudhry declared the PCO order null and void and ruled that no
judge of the Supreme Court or High Courts could take oath under it.
Armed security forces escorted the dissenting judges out. Their
services have been `terminated' but they remain defiant under house
arrest, supported by an unprecedented number of fellow judges,
including the chief justices of all four provincial High Courts.

Hundreds of lawyers, including retired judges of the High Courts,
have been arrested in the crackdown following the Bar Associations'
call to protest and boycott courts headed by `PCO judges'. The
government has admitted that over 500 lawyers were arrested in the
two largest cities of Pakistan alone. The BBC estimates the country-
wide number to be closer to 3,000. Since then, many more have been
arrested, including former Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP)
chairperson Afrasiab Khattak in Peshawar on Nov. 13.

"The Proclamation of Emergency contravenes the Constitution," wrote
prominent constitutional lawyer Qazi Faez Isa in an op-ed piece on
Nov. 10, the day newspapers reported that the government had amended
the Army Act of 1952 to allow the army to court-martial civilians. An
underlying reason for this amendment, say analysts, is the apparent
inability of the existing anti-terrorist courts to hold proper or
speedy trials of those involved in acts of terrorism or militancy.

Meanwhile, ordinary citizens around the country are visiting the `non-
PCO' judges with flowers, garlands, and thank you notes, and
spontaneously naming popular cross-roads after them. "They are paying
a heavy price for their defiance," said Kausar S.K of the Women's
Peace Commission, who has made several such visits under the umbrella
organisation `People's Resistance', a civil society coalition against
the martial law.

These judges were made to empty their chambers and the phones of some
were disconnected. They are not allowed to visit the High Courts, and
the government has said they will not be allowed to practice law,
says the People's Resistance.

"It is alright for us younger lawyers," said Faisal Siddiqi, who is
helping colleagues in Karachi Central Jail. "But for these older
judges and lawyers, who have spent their lives building up their
practices, it will be very difficult to start from scratch. We salute
them."

After groups in Islamabad and Lahore were prevented from meeting the
judges, some 500 people gathered at a public spot in Islamabad on
Monday to light candles in solidarity with Rana Bhagwandas, the only
Hindu judge in Pakistan's Supreme Court.

Bhagwandas was on the anti-PCO bench of Nov. 3 and, like his fellow
judges, has been under house arrest at his official residence in
Islamabad. One group also visited his family in Karachi with sweets
to show solidarity on the occasion of Diwali, the Hindu festival of
lights last weekend, as Bhagwandas was not allowed to visit his
family.

Since civil society organisations can drum up only limited numbers
for street protests, they hardly post a threat to the regime. But the
ban on public gatherings under the emergency means that those
attending protests and rallies risk being beaten and arrested by the
police. Even so, citizens' groups around the country are engaging in
vigils, `flash protests' and other symbolic actions like wearing
black arm-bands. They have been joined by students from private
institutions, including high-school students from Islamabad's elite,
traditionally apolitical schools.

Police baton-charged and then detained 48 such students engaged in a
silent protest in Islamabad on Monday. The students, aged 12-18, some
in school uniform, were charged with violating laws that prohibit the
gathering of more than four persons in a public place. They were
released after their parents signed `good behaviour' bonds on their
behalf.

"The students' resolve has only been strengthened as a result of this
incident -- we will continue to voice our opinions, as is our right,
in a peaceful and non-violent manner," wrote `Z.H.' in the widely
circulated student-run online `The Emergency Times' launched on Nov 5
(online version: pakistanmartiallaw.blogspot.com).

After students registered their silent protest with black bands on
their arms and foreheads, the administration said that "any student
found even wearing a black ribbon as protest against emergency will
be expelled without a hearing before the disciplinary committee,"
wrote one student. "Students in Karachi want to be part of the
students' movement but the administrations are not letting this
happen" .

With independent television news still blocked, such protestors get
their messages across to the world via the Internet and cell phone.
There is currently no restriction on such communication or on the
English language newspapers, although activists believe they are
being closely monitored.

Analysts say that it seems Musharraf is more concerned about keeping
news from members of the non-English speaking public to prevent them
from joining the protests.

Students at non-elite institutions like Karachi University were
unaware of the arrests and detentions taking place around the country
but endorsed a small protest by the University Teachers Forum (UTF)
on Tuesday. A dozen or so teachers from various departments stood
silently behind a black banner calling for the restoration of the
Constitution, the judiciary and human rights.

"The emergency has given a bad name to Pakistan around the world,"
said Saira Sheikh a student of the Economics Department who was
passing by. "But we don't know what's going on around the country
because there are no news channels, no information," added her friend
Hira.

The students left as police rangers from a parked van nearby started
coming towards them. The rangers did not engage with the
demonstrators. "They were probably told to leave us alone," said one
teacher. UTF convenor, Abdul Qadeer of the Applied Physics
department, attributed the low turnout to the fear of arrest and to
de-politicisation of the campuses.

"This darkness at high noon cannot last. The judges by not taking
oath, the lawyers and the civil society by resisting have already
shown the way. The media is standing by them shoulder to shoulder.
This is one battle the General is sure to lose," predicted former
senator Shafqat Mahmood.

However, with Washington determined to back Musharraf
unconditionally, this darkness, may be rather more long-drawn out
than most Pakistanis would like, some analysts say.

(END/2007)

Nov 15 update - besides the issues in the subject line, scroll down
for upcoming events in NY (Nov 20), Academics for Freedom, and most
TV news channels back on air...

NEW CARETAKER SETUP
It's midnight, and first assemblies to have ever completed their
tenure in Pakistan are now history.  A new caretaker set up is in
place, headed by Senate Chairman Mohammedmian Soomro as caretaker
prime minister to oversee elections in January. These elections will
be meaningless under the Emergency that shows no sign of being lifted
even though Musharraf has tantalizingly said that he almost stepped
down. The Constitution, the judiciary, and human rights must be
restored – as the Karachi University Teachers' Forum demanded in
their banner (cleverly avoiding the use of the word `emergency' or
any other overt criticism).

ELECTIONS UNDER EMERGENCY
Here's how HRCP director I.A. Rehman puts it: "The whole transition
to democracy is meaningless under emergency. Even elections will
bring nothing for this country under the present circumstances. In my
opinion emergency has made autocracy in Pakistan even more
autocratic. It is true that before the promulgation of emergency
Musharraf was already ruling the country by his own choice, but now
all the powers have gone to him. He alone is responsible to decide." -
  http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40071 – The text is worth
reading in full, for the clarity IAR brings to the issue, as always.

The bottom line: "The real victims of this coup are the people of
Pakistan. When you discriminate against the judiciary and gag the
media both suffer, but the ultimate victims are the people. If they
do not get a good government, they suffer. Then there is no democracy
without the judiciary. As for the media, it has under attack so that
people cannot formulate their own opinion by getting relevant
information. The government is not against these TV news channels but
against what they are doing -- informing people. This is a way to put
a stop to the democratic process. So democracy is the real target.
All these are pillars of democracy."

KARACHI PRESS CLUB SEMINAR
Several people gathered at the Karachi Press Club for a seminar on
media freedom this afternoon – there were probably more police
outside than journalists at one point. Many civil society activists
(from People's Resistance) turned up with posters and banners
expecting a rally (someone had sent out an email which caused this
confusion), but it was essentially a journalists' event and the KPC
officer bearers asked the activists not to go outside and protest as
Justice Wajihuddin was coming and the police were just looking for a
chance to pick him up.

I had to leave before Justice Wajih got there, so missed his speech
etc – but as I walked to the main road displaying my `Hum Dekhenge'
poster, the police started wondering what I was up to. A couple of
them approached me wondering if `aap log' (you people) were going to
Governor House ("we can't allow that and there will be trouble").
Fortunately, or not, depends how you look at it, I was only going
home), and there was trouble at the KPC. In Lyari, however, it was a
different matter.

TWO YOUNGSTERS KILLED IN LYARI
While at the Press Club, we heard that two boys had got killed in
Lyari (PPP stronghold). Apparently there was a shootout as people
tried to get the shops to shut down…  News report here -
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSISL27695020071115 -
And photos (thanks Choudhry) here. Sad
http://news.yahoo.com/photo/071115/ids_photos_wl/r2589494100.jpg
http://news.yahoo.com/photo/071115/ids_photos_wl/r1337004437.jpg
http://news.yahoo.com/photo/071115/ids_photos_wl/r2344325218.jpg

CHANNELS BACK ON AIR (EXCEPT A COUPLE)
Another piece of news we heard while at the Press Club was that most
of the TV news channels were back on air, with the notable exception
of Geo (all channels, including sports & entertainment), and ARY. I
suppose we'll have a better idea of the full story tomorrow (though
we can all speculate about what happened).

Former Editor of The News Lahore (and former co-director of the HRCP)
Kamila Hyat had a very good piece on this issue in The News today,
arguing that the channels can't indefinitely be kept off the air,
there has to be some negotiation & give & take – `Futile measures'
http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=80757

ACTIVISM – TEACH-IN
The activism continues, adding a new element – `teach-ins'. Activist
Naeem Sadiq and Sahar Shafaat (a political science professor based in
the U.S., currently in Karachi) went to Lyceum Karachi today to give
a lecture on the current situation in Pakistan. They spoke to about
30 A Levels students, focusing on the disparities in Pakistan, and
what can be done about them. "The lecture made a very clear
suggestion that students engage in peaceful protest as a way of
resisting martial law."

THE EMERGENCY TIMES FOLKS NEED INFO:

1) There have been reports of a few LUMS students being arrested in
Lahore. If you have any information that could help in tracing them
please email saynotomartiallaw@... and
theemergencytimes@... IMMEDIATELY. A prompt response to help
save a few people from military court.

2) Two innocent students were killed today in Karachi. If anyone has
more information about their identity, affiliation, or any thing
relevant please email theemergencyinpakistan@.... We are
especially looking for an eyewitness account of some one who was at
the protest today and saw the firing today. If you know of anyone
please forward them this request.

ACADEMICS FOR FREEDOM
http://www.academicsforfreedom.blogspot.com/
A Group of independent Pakistani academics have launched a new blog
which is going to consistently update Pakistani and international
audiences through analytical insights into the immediate and longer
term adverse impacts and ramifications of the imposition of Emergency
in Pakistan on November 3, 2007.

ISLAMABAD PROTEST
From Samar: A strong showing by citizens of Rawalpindi/Islamabad
yesterday outside Dawn News office. Thank you all for your support;
thank you Zanaib and Alia for putting it together. I'd also like to
take the opportunity to decry the actions of Islami Jamiat Students
in Lahore yesterday. Ours is a peaceful struggle for democracy and we
cannot condone violence in any form from any party. Additionally, we
firmly believe that, if we are to succeed in restoring democracy, we
must remain united. There is no room for factional politics within
our movement. Divided, we're easy pickings for a ruthless
dictatorship. For those unfamiliar with the story, please read:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7095596.stm

SOME UPCOMING EVENTS

ISLAMABAD, Monday, 19 November - Student Protest outside Air
University
PAF Complex, E-9, Islamabad, Time: 2pm

KARACHI, Tuesday, 20 November, Karachi Press Club, rally by
journalists
Time: 3pm

NEW YORK - Doctors For Democracy and Justice Seminar:
Pakistan main Aeen and Jumhooriat ki Pamaali- Ek lamhae fikr
(Trampling of Constitution and Justice in Pakistan)
Sunday November 18th, 1 PM to 5 PM (Ziafat ( previous Bukhara
Restaurant)
786 Coney Island Avenue, Midwood NY 11230 - Tel 718-287-7011)
  Speakers include:
- Justice (Rtd) Wajih-ud-Din Ahmed, through special telephone
arrangement
- Ali Ahsan Esq, Attorney at Law, Son of Atizaz Ahsan
- Mazhar Abbas,  Secretary-General of the Pakistan Federal Union of
Journalists (in NY to receive the CPJ International Press Freedom
award – see www.cpj.org)
- Dr. Manzur Ejaz, Washington based renowned Journalist
- Hassan Abbas, Boston based political analyst
- Rana Ramzan, Pakistani American Advocates for Civil and Human
Rights (PAACHR)
For further information, please contact Dr. Abdul Majeed (516) 655-
4134) Dr. Qazi K.Haider (516) 225-7852, Dr. Faheem Butt (516) 410-
1507, Dr. Nasir Gondal (917) 860-0808 and Ahsahullah Khan Bobby of
Coney Island Avenue Project (917) 440-9002

New York Students' Pakistan Action
Committee/EHTIJAJ/Featuring /Salman Ahmad (Junoon)/
*PROTEST AGAINST MARTIAL LAW IN PAKISTAN*
*OUTSIDE UN PLAZA, NEW YORK *
Sunday, November 18, 2007, 1:00pm - 3:00pm
*Location: *UN Head Quarters,* *First Avenue at 46th Street
/NY Students' Pakistan Action Committee is a coalition of students
across NY Universities./

UPDATE ON ABIDA HUSSAIN
From her son Abid Imam, a lawyer in the US:
Sent: Wed Nov 14 18:12:50 2007

Syeda Abida Hussain, former Pakistani Ambassador to the United
States, former Cabinet Member and Member of Parliament, and presently
a member of the Central Working Committee of Benazir Bhutto's
Pakistan People's Party, was arrested under orders of the present
regime in Pakistan earlier today for engaging in the agitation for
the restoration of democracy and the rule of law. Some hours later,
she was brought back by the police to her residence, which has been
declared a sub-jail. She is under indefinite house arrest and is
confined to her room and back verandah, with policewomen posted
outside her bedroom door, and policemen posted at the gate.

All pro-democracy forces in Pakistan today, including the Pakistan
People's Party, hope for the speedy release of all political
prisoners, lawyers and members of the judiciary, a restoration of the
1973 Constitution, the reinstatement of the dismissed Chief Justice
and the dozens of judges that were dismissed along with him. We also
desire the repeal of the present administration's extension of the
Army Act to apply to all civilians who, if now publicly say or are
overhead saying anything critical of the Army or any member of the
Armed Forces, are subject to arrest and trial by military courts, in
addition to the repeal of the ban on the independent TV channels. All
of the foregoing are prerequisites to holding free and fair elections.

HRW DEMANDS: Pakistan: Rescind Decree Allowing Military Trials of
Civilians
For Immediate Release - Pakistan: Rescind Decree Allowing Military
Trials of Civilians
Amended Law Gives Impunity to Intelligence Agencies
(New York, November 15, 2007) –…. …Trials of civilians conducted by
special military courts under the amended law will not be public,
investigations will be conducted by military officers, and rules of
evidence and procedures laid out for constitutional trials will not
apply. It is increasingly recognized under international human rights
laws that the trial of civilians by military courts should be very
exceptional and only occur under conditions that genuinely afford
full due process….The amendment will take effect retrospectively from
January 2003, in effect sanctioning impunity of the army for
detaining and "disappearing" people. Full text at:
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/11/08/pakist17282.htm

INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP - NEW BRIEFING
Winding Back Martial Law in Pakistan
Islamabad/Brussels, 12 November 2007: General Pervez Musharraf's
declaration of martial law on 3 November can only bring more violence
and instability to Pakistan. The international community must support
the Pakistani people's demand for the immediate restoration of
constitutional order and democracy and the end of military rule.
…To achieve this, the international community should apply graduated
sanctions, starting with immediate suspension of military cooperation
talks and a review of military aid. If Musharraf does not take off
his uniform by 15 November and undo martial law and its effects,
tougher sanctions should follow, including suspending non-counter
terrorism military aid. If there are no results in 30 days, the
military's foreign assets should be frozen and senior officials and
officers refused travel visas. Simultaneously, aid should be expanded
for education, poverty reduction, healthcare and relief work, with
the money channelled through secular NGOs…. Read the full Crisis
Group briefing at: http://www.crisisgroup.org

November 17, 2007



Two important updates re: lawyers/judges & ARY/Geo



1. LAWYERS/JUDGES: There is much appreciation among the legal community for
the work people in this group are doing. Judges are proud that 'civil
society' is coming to meet them. Ongoing pressure has resulted in the
release of most of the lawyers (in Karachi), leaving only the leaders
inside. But there is still a lot of pressure on them, including from judges
hearing their cases. Lawyers are standing firm. They say that the most
important thing right now is

a. Continue to provide moral support to the non-PCO Judges, to keep their
morale up.

b. Organization

c. Go to the public, keep getting the word out.



Meeting the judges has really made a big difference to their morale – please
keep it up. The de facto house arrest on Sindh CJ Sabihuddin has been
lifted, and there are no (were never) any restrictions or restraints on the
Sindh HC judges – unlike in other places. The stakes here are also higher as
the SHC has the highest percentage of non-PCO judges (16 out of 27 refused
to take the oath). It is important not to legitimize or normalize the
current judicial set up – and to keep treating the non-PCO judges as the
real judges, eg, hold a reference for one who is retiring etc.



Thoughts and feedback from this group on these points would be appreciated.



2. GEO/ARY SHUT DOWN. Everyone knows by now about the shut down of these
channels. Brief re-cap:



Soon after being blocked on cable following the martial law imposed on Nov
3, a couple of the business channels (Business Plus, owned by Salman Taseer
who is now a minister in the current caretaker set up, and CNBC-Pakistan)
were back on air. CNN & BBC were allowed on for a day, taken off again and
then allowed back on. Meanwhile, all the other independent news channels
remained blocked. The government wanted them to sign an undertaking of 'good
behaviour' (that the channels call the 'journalists' PCO) as well as agree
to certain conditions - eg news could no longer go live and recordings of
the talks shows had to be pre-approved.



Soon some of the smaller channels were back. And on Nov 16, so were the
others– Dawn TV (which doesn't have any controversial, hard-hitting talk
shows – besides which it is in English so they're not that bothered), Aaj
(minus a couple of their popular talk shows, 'Live with Talat' and 'Bolta
Pakistan'). However, ARY Digital and Geo TV – which have the most live news
coverage – were still blocked. The government's vindictiveness is clear from
the fact that even Geo's sports and entertainment channels were blocked,
causing huge revenue losses. Govt was demanding that Hamid Mir, Kamran Khan,
and Shahid Masood's programmes should be dropped.



Geo & ARY uplink from their offices in Dubai, and had throughout this time
continued to broadcast all the talk shows and news. On Nov 16 evening, even
this facility was removed. People in the government were trying to get
Musharraf to negotiate - Moonis Ilahi (Ch. Parvez Illahi's son) called up
the Geo people in Lahore looking for Mir Shakilur Rehman (MSR, currently in
Dubai), saying his father would intercede for a meeting between Musharraf
and MSR. Just around that time, the Dubai government sent a notification to
the Geo office there at about 9 pm saying that they had to shut down
operations by midnight. They were given three hours for this.



Mir Ibrahim Rehman (CEO of Geo) is currently in Islamabad (MSR, his father
is in Dubai. He says that "they have made sure from day one that ALL of Geo
Television Networks channels were off air. News channels for other networks
make only 10 percent of their overall revenue, ours is 50 percent. Anyway
the rest of 50 percent that comes from entertainment channels was also not
coming in, has Geo, the country's most popular entertainment channel, AAG
the country's first youth channel and GEO Super the only sports channel
(which has exclusive and very expensive rights for the ongoing India Pak

cricket matches) was not allowed cable distribution in Pakistan along w GEO
News. We are losing 500k to a million dollars each day estimated and this
could be more, and this is only on electronic side. They have gotten signs
from all others on a draconian code of conduct as well has undertaking that
certain people will not be on air. They asked us to get rid of 3 4 specific
people, and also 3 4 people in print side as well. The print side has
already suffered 30 40 percent decline in reveunes has govt has pulled all
its ads as well has is asking big companies to do the same and its working.
I have a feeling they will now target the print side further."



Also, a treason case against MSR has been created and he has been "advised"
not come back to Pakistan

.

Regarding Streaming you can use our existing Streaming links says Geo
technical staff:



For GEO News web TV



mms://stream.wmlivesvc.vitalstreamcdn.com/live_stream_geo_tv_GeoVid

http://wmlivegw-es-2.vitalstreamcdn.com/live_stream_geo_tv_GeoVid

  <http://wmlivegw-es-2.vitalstreamcdn.com/live_stream_geo_tv_GeoVid>



For GEO News (audio only)

mms://stream.wmlivesvc.vitalstreamcdn.com/live_stream_geo_tv_GeoAud

http://wmlivegw-es-1.vitalstreamcdn.com/live_stream_geo_tv_GeoAud <
http://wmlivegw-es-1.vitalstreamcdn.com/live_stream_geo_tv_GeoAud>



NOTE: Geo reporters & workers have called for a support rally today,
starting at the Karachi Press Club at 3 pm, going to the Geo office on I.I.
Chundrigar Road. People from this group are welcome to join them.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

This was very tragic news that Bob Dietz of the CPJ sent over today -
Hayatullah's brother Ehsanullah is still in Miran Shah. Another
younger brother was killed some time back. Apparently they still have
the money they get from the government - were supposed to to move to
Peshawar but never did.

Last year Eliza Griswold of the New Yorker (Nieman '07) and Bob Dietz
collected money to send to Hayat's family as both had worked closely
with him. Imtiaz Ali who is in Peshawar says that the children were
sleeping right by her but survived somehow...

beena

BBC Urdu website
http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/story/2007/11/071117_hayyat_blast_f
z.shtml

AP report: Bomb kills widow of Pakistani journalist slain after
revealing US strike

17 November 2007 19:12 Associated Press Newswires

MIRAN SHAH, Pakistan (AP) - The widow of a journalist killed after
photographing evidence of a U.S. air strike in Pakistan died in a
bomb attack on Saturday, a relative said.
Mahrun Nisa was killed when the bomb exploded before dawn at her home
in Mir Ali, a militant stronghold in the border region of North
Waziristan, said her brother-in-law, Ahsan Ullah.
Ullah declined to discuss who might have planted the bomb.
Khan disappeared in December 2005, days after he photographed
shrapnel from a Hellfire missile aimed at a wanted al-Qaida figure,
Hamza Rabia, in Mir Ali.
His bullet-ridden body was found seven months later near the town.
Khan's widely published photograph contradicted a claim by Pakistan's
government that Rabia had died when a bomb he was making accidentally
exploded, and sparked protests and criticism of Pakistani support for
Washington's war on terror.
Members of Khan's family accused Pakistan's intelligence service of
involvement, despite official denials.
Khan had worked for the Pakistani newspaper Ausaf and the European
Press Photo Agency, or EPA.

Thanks to all those who made it to the vigil in front of Geo Karachi yesterday -
sorry I could not make it, I was waiting for a friend to turn up from Nepal,
Kanak Dixit, editor of Himal Southasian (www.himalmag.com) and we got very late.
Kanak was part of a 5-member delegation visiting Pakistan at the invitation of
the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ, one of CPJ's International
Press Freedom awardees - Mazhar Abbas, Secretary General of PFUJ receives the
award today in New York) and the International Federation of Journalists for a
fact-finding mission into the media issue in Pakistan.

Unfortunately, the other delegation members could not make it - the Sri Lankan
and Indian were denied visas, the other Nepali (president of the Nepal Union of
Journalists) couldn't get a seat on the flight, and the head of the mission, IFJ
President Christopher Warren, was barred from travelling on medical grounds. So
that left our friend Kanak holding the fort. He finally made it and did get to
Geo, but by then the vigil was over - he signed on the Geo Wall of Protest:
"General, this is crazy!". But more important was that he was able to meet
Hameed Haroon of Dawn and Imran Aslam and Mir Ibrahim Rehman of Geo and Mehmood
Sham of Jang. He has now gone to Islamabad and Lahore.

Below, the story I filed yesterday for IPS.

beena
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40127

POLITICS-PAKISTAN: Towards Democracy Musharraf-Style
Analysis by Beena Sarwar

KARACHI, Nov 20 (IPS) - As President Gen. Pervez Musharraf
congratulated the outgoing national assembly for being the first ever
in Pakistan's 60-year history to complete its term (on Nov 15) and
swore in a new 24-member caretaker government to supervise general
elections in January, the flaws in these ostensibly positive moves
towards democracy were glaring.

Musharraf did not take the political parties into confidence on
appointing as caretaker prime minister Mohammadmian Soomro, senate
chairman and a known Musharraf loyalist. Nor was any consensus sought
on the composition of the caretaker cabinet which includes no
opposition member. "The caretaker government is an extension of the
ruling Pakistan Muslim League," said twice-elected former prime
minister Benazir Bhutto, rejecting the caretaker set up.

The caretaker government is to oversee elections under essentially
flawed circumstances: the emergency rule that Musharraf announced on
Nov 3, issuing a new Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) and in
one stroke suspending the Constitution, fundamental rights, the
judiciary and media freedom. Since he promulgated the PCO in his
capacity as army chief rather than as president, legal experts say it
is basically martial law.

The Fair and Free Elections Network (FAFEN) has termed the notion of
holding elections under emergency an oxymoron. It raises "serious
concerns about the fairness of the electoral process," said the
independent Islamabad-based coalition of 30 leading Pakistani civil
society organisations in a Nov. 12 statement.

Being under a state of emergency, Pakistan lacks conditions that are
a prerequisite for a free election, said the Network. "The
independence of judiciary has been compromised. Fundamental rights of
people continue to be suspended. Political activities are banned.
Citizens and civil society activists are arrested by security and
intelligence agencies. Media is controlled by new laws to restrict
its ability to give unbiased information to people."

On Monday, the Supreme Court -- packed with Musharraf's hand-picked
judges and purged of those who refused take oath under his PCO --
quickly quashed most of the legal challenges to his reelection as
president while in uniform. Musharraf proclaimed emergency when it
became apparent that the Supreme Court was unlikely to validate his
reelection while still army chief.

There is near unanimous support among Pakistan's major civil society
organisations and political parties for the immediate lifting of the
emergency and restoration of the constitution, judiciary and
fundamental rights.

"The caretaker government took an oath to protect the Constitution --
which does not exist anymore, and the oath was administered by the
one who took it away," said Lala Hasan, a civil rights activist who
is involved with the People's Resistance coalition in Karachi,
pointing out the ironies in the situation.

Even Mushahid Hussain, secretary general of the Pakistan Muslim
League (Quaid-e-Azam), or PML-Q, the party backing Musharraf, has
chimed in with demands for an end to the emergency before elections
are held. Hussain's speaking out at this juncture is seen as
significant and an indication of the growing unrest with the
emergency.

Business consultant Naeem Sadiq termed Soomro as "another illegal
care-taker prime minister" who took oath "in front of the army chief,
on the orders of the army chief, under a law manufactured by the army
chief." In an open letter pointing out that the Supreme Court had
declared the `emergency' illegal and unconstitutional, he contended
that by assuming this position, Soomro "blatantly acted against and
violated the constitution of Pakistan".

"You still have time to decline the offer and go play a game of golf,
Mr. Soomro," added Sadiq. The new prime minister has ignored any such
advice but some analysts were hopeful that things would soon ease up
due to the immense international and domestic pressures on
Musharraf. "This situation can't last," said lawyer Faisal
Siddiqi. "Sooner or later, he has to lift the martial law. The
Constitution and the judiciary will be restored, along with all the
other fundamental rights and media freedoms."

Condemnations and protests have poured in from around the world, by
governments, bar associations, and human rights organisations. Last
Wednesday, over 700 members of the powerful American Bar Association
demonstrated in Washington to protest against the mass arrests of
Pakistani lawyers opposed to the PCO, and suspension of judges who
did not take fresh oath under the PCO.

"There's no legal uniform in America, but they all wore black coats
in solidarity with their Pakistani colleagues," said lawyer Abira
Ashfaq who moved back to Pakistan a year ago from the U.S.

The one pressure that is generally perceived as the most significant
does not seem to work -- that of the White House. U.S. policy towards
Pakistan is centred on fighting terrorism. The realisation that
military means alone will not do the trick necessitated taking
political forces along and promoting democracy.

It was towards this end that the U.S. has been involved, along with
Britain, on negotiating a deal between Musharraf and Bhutto -- trying
to marry the military and the political elements. Although they have
long been anathema to each other, the military ruler and the populist
politician had managed to come to a working agreement that enabled
Bhutto to return to Pakistan on Oct.18 after over eight years in self-
exile.

A cartoon circulated on the internet portrayed Musharraf and Bhutto
as a garlanded bride and groom, with a smiling George W. Bush
standing behind them as the matchmaker.

While many loudly criticise the extreme compromises the deal entails,
others point out that Bhutto was showing how far she is willing to go
to make possible a transition from military rule to democracy.

Cracks in the deal began appearing when Musharraf urged Bhutto to
delay her arrival in Pakistan. Bhutto refused. The tensions deepened
after bomb blasts killed some 150 people in her welcome procession,
as she headed into Karachi from the airport. What was left of the
agreement fell apart after Musharraf's emergency proclamation of Nov
3. Rejecting it, Bhutto has called for a restoration of the
Constitution, basic rights and the judiciary, as a prerequisite to
her cooperation.

Alarmed at these developments, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John
Negroponte flew to Islamabad on Friday, on a brief, self-stated
mission to put Pakistan's `derailed' democracy `back on track'. Many
expected him to give a rap on Musharraf's knuckles and get the
emergency lifted. There was room for cautious optimism that this
would happen soon, when a day ahead of Negroponte's visit, Musharraf
ordered the release of all political prisoners --except a few
leaders.

Those still incarcerated include the Supreme Court Bar Association
(SCBA) president Aitzaz Ahsan, currently in solitary confinement, as
well as former SCBA presidents Munir A. Malik and Ali Ahmed Kurd.
Chief Justice Iftikhar Choudhry, who led the Supreme Court bench that
ruled against the emergency orders, also remains under house arrest
along with the other judges of the bench.

Several political prisoners were released from house arrest including
Bhutto, prominent human rights advocate Asma Jahangir, and dissenting
judges of the High Courts who had refused to take oath under the PCO.

Negroponte telephoned Bhutto the day of her release, Friday,
reiterating that "moderate forces" should work together to get
Pakistan back to democracy. The day before the national assembly's
term ended, Musharraf vested the powers to lift the emergency in the
office of the president which he holds.

Expected to resign from his army post in the next few days but stay
on as civilian president, he is clearly working on retaining this
power, say analysts.

Defying all the pressures upon him, Musharraf has stated that the
country is more important than democracy. "When the nation is about
to be declared a failed state, tell me whether the (restoration) of
so-called democracy is important or efforts to save the country," he
asked a television interviewer last week. He responded to his own
question: "Of course it is important to save the country."

Musharraf made it clear to Negroponte that he will only lift the
emergency once the security situation in Pakistan improves. "He told
the envoy that the emergency is meant to reinforce and strengthen the
law enforcement apparatus in the fight against militancy and
extremism," said a presidential aide.

More alarmingly, just ahead of his meeting with the U.S. diplomat,
Musharraf said in an interview with the BBC Radio Four's 'Today'
programme that without him, Pakistan's nuclear weapons could fall
into the hands of terrorists. "This really comes as close as you can
get to the last bluster over the last drink in Last Chance Saloon,"
commented a political researcher in Karachi requesting
anonymity. "What a dangerous mind!"

In the interview, Musharraf inadvertently accepted the illegality of
his PCO. "Have I done anything constitutionally illegal? Yes, I did
it on Nov. 3. But did I do it before? Not once." In asking the second
rhetorical question, critics point out that Musharraf seems to have
forgotten that he originally came to power in 1999 through a military
coup, suspending the constitution and overthrowing the then elected
government.

"There are not too many instances in the world where a head of
government openly mentions nuclear proliferation in such stark terms
and links it with his own stay in power. Musharraf has made Pakistan
the state equivalent of a suicide bomber," commented the political
researcher. "Complex, isn't it, the business of constructing
democracy in a developing, nuclear-armed state."

(END/2007)

Here's a press release about what happened today at Karachi Press
Club, followed by a personal account of the situation.

THE PEOPLE'S RESISTANCE
PRESS STATEMENT - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Civil society condemns lathi charge, arrest of journalists

KARACHI, NOV 20: The civil society coalition People's Resistance
condemns in the strongest terms the brutal police lathi charge on
unarmed journalists outside the Karachi Press Club and the arrests of
Karachi Union of Journalists' President Shamimur Rehman, Karachi
Press Club President Sabihuddin Ghausi, Secretary General of the
Association of Pakistan Television Journalists Faisal Aziz Khan,
Ahfaz-ur Rehman and Najeeb Ahmad among others.

Journalists as well as members of civil society had gathered in
solidarity with the nation-wide protest call given by the Pakistan
Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) against restrictions on the
media, particularly the electronic media. Several journalists,
including women, were injured when police launched a second attack on
them outside the Press Club.

The People's Resistance salutes those who subsequently peacefully
offered arrest in solidarity with their arrested colleagues and in
protest against the police refusal to let the journalists to take out
a peaceful procession to Governor House. About a hundred journalists
and several civil society members were among those who courted
arrest, including senior journalists Idris Bakhtiar, Owais Tohid,
Qaisar Mahmood, Afzal Nadeem Dogar, and Kamal Siddiqui. They were
carted off in several mobiles to police stations across the city,
many flashing victory signs and shouting slogans for the freedom of
media and against dictatorship.

People's Resistance calls upon all professional groups, NGOs, trade
unions, student unions and individuals to join the platform of
resistance in its peaceful campaigns for the restoration of the
Constitution of Pakistan and basic rights, the judiciary and media
independence.

(ends)

Personal account:

As the journalists ran down the street towards the Karachi Press
Club, chased by baton-wielding police, I knew that they must have
tried to cross the police barricade on the other side to go towards
the Governor House.

Having to leave early during a seminar at the KPC a few days ago, I
had walked down the deserted street -- blocked on either end by
police vans -- to the main road, holding a poster before me that
proclaimed "Ham Dekhenge" (We will see…). The policemen at the street
entrance sent a plainclothes man over to ask me what I was up to.
Maybe they thought I was an advance party for a larger group. "Are
you planning to go towards the Governor House?" he asked "Please do
us a favour, don't go there. Our jobs are on the line. They'll say,
what are you posted there for. We don't want to hurt you people."

Well, plenty of people got hurt today, because they refused to be
contained in front of the Press Club. The Pakistan Federal Union of
Journalists (PFUJ) had given a nation-wide protest call as part of
the on-continuing protests since `Black Day' Nov 9 against
Musharraf's anti-media ordinances and the blocking of independent
news channels. Most channels are back on air, having capitulated to
government demands to remove certain talk show hosts and anchors –
except for Geo and ARY. The Karachi journalists have already held a
seminar and hunger-strike camps as part of this series of protests.

Particularly since this martial law, there is always lots of police
outside the Press Club, a favourite place for protests. Today, they
had not only blocked off the roads on both sides but also another
road leading to the Press Club, so that people had to leave their
transport at quite a distance to get through. I, along with some
others, arrived at one end (near the main gate). On the other end, we
could see a large group of journalists in front of the police
barricade. Apparently they wanted to present a memorandum to the
Governor, but the police weren't letting them through. Suddenly they
came running back towards the Club – there had been a lathi-charge
and police were beating up journalists. Several journalists were
arrested (the office bearers etc mentioned in the first para of the
press release above).

One or two people flung stones at the police, but others yelled at
them to stop, and they did. Everyone came back inside the Press Club.
Some journalists went back out and started raising slogans. Suddenly,
there was another lathi charge, pretty indiscriminate. Several people
got hit, including at least one woman from the Peoples Resistance
group who got a lathi on her back. Javed Umrani had a big welt on his
back from a lathi, as well as scrapes on his leg and arm. One man got
a lathi on his head – he grabbed onto my bag as a policeman tried to
drag him away -- the front of his shirt was soaked with blood, but he
seemed alright otherwise. We made it back inside the Press Club, and
someone called for an ambulance for him, given the loss of blood –
they thought the police would arrest him if someone tried to take him
to the hospital.

Soon the journalists were outside again, raising slogans that the
police this time made no attempt to stop. One journalist (from Geo
English) tied his hands in chains and crossed them before his mouth
in a symbolic gesture. The group was pretty much encircled by
cameramen (and the one camerawoman, Lala Rukh, from Geo). Then a
suggestion about offering mass arrests in solidarity with those
arrested took off.

Several journalists offered themselves for arrest and walked up the
street raising slogans, escorted by riot police to the waiting vans.
They were bundled in, and went off chanting slogans and flashing `V'
signs. Then another group went and offered arrest, and then a
third…. "Idris Sahib, Qaisar (Mahmood) and I are also going," said
Owais Tohid (head of Geo English and an old colleague from the News).
Kamal Siddiqi from the News turned up just at that point and joined
them. About a 100 were taken off like that, in several van-loads.

The Governor issued release orders for all of them around 8 pm, but
it took time for these orders to reach the three different thanas
were they were being held. At the Docks thana, police said they would
release the seven women detained there but they refused to go; later,
the men also refused to leave until they were sure that the rumour
about four journalists being held back under the MPO was not true and
everyone was being released.

Aaj TV reported the nation-wide journalists' demonstrations in some
detail. In Peshawar, Islamabad and Lahore, they took out processions,
but apparently several journalists were arrested in Hyderabad as
well, besides Karachi. How does it create a law and order situation
if a group of journalists walks down the street to give a piece of
paper to the Governor?

Anyway, none of this has deterred the journalists. More protests have
been announced for tomorrow and in the coming days.

beena

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40184

PAKISTAN: Media Under Siege
By Beena Sarwar

KARACHI, Nov 23 (IPS) - From being the liberal President under whom
Pakistan's independent electronic media was born and flourished,
Pervez Musharraf is now seen as the military general who imposed
emergency rule on Nov 3 and suspended the Constitution and the
independent judiciary.

Musharraf also blocked all independent television channels on the
cable network. There were police raids on media organisations,
printing presses and bureau offices and detentions of journalists.

For many, Musharraf's ham-handed dealing with the media over the past
year, and particularly the last couple of weeks, evokes bitter
memories of the late Gen. Ziaul Haq's martial law with its strict
media censorship and `press advice'. Newspapers in protest published
blank spaces where material had been censored. Dissenting journalists
were arrested and some were even flogged.

Musharraf has been comparatively benign.But this is a very different
era, where independent news and views and a continuous flow of
information had become the norm. In Zia's time, there were only a
handful of independent newspapers, hardly a threat, given the
abysmally low 30 per cent literacy rate. Musharraf has had to contend
with the independent electronic media with a huge outreach. Until
now, his claim that he gave the media more freedom than ever before
was true to an extent, say journalists, but it is a freedom they have
fought for, and it has come with a price.

"An explosion in the number of independent TV channels boosted
pluralism and the quality of news," noted the media watchdog
Reporters Without Borders in its annual report of 2007.
Simultaneously, since Pakistan's involvement as a frontline state
against the `war on terror, "the security forces radicalised their
methods of repression: a score of journalists were kidnapped and
tortured by the military." Almost two dozen have been killed in
different incidents since.

On Nov 3, PEMRA (Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority)
officials invaded the independent FM radio station Mast 103.6's
Karachi office with a heavy police contingent. They forced it to
close transmission and confiscated its broadcast equipment, citing
the station's broadcast of its hourly news bulletins and current
affairs programmes from BBC as the reason. In 2004 too, PEMRA had
sealed the popular radio network's Lahore and Karachi stations.

The outspoken Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (www.pfuj.info)
which has a long history of struggle for media freedom, termed the
present situation "one of the worst kind of repression against the
media since 1978". The union has called for an ongoing series of
protests, meetings and demonstrations until the media restrictions
were lifted and all the channels restored.

"In the Zia days, we would protest in groups of four and chant
slogans against the martial law and media restrictions. We would
court arrest peacefully, and the police would pick us up," recalled
Nasir Zaidi who works for the `The News' in Islamabad. Section 144,
the law the government routinely invokes to prohibit public
gatherings of more than four persons, was then in force around the
country -- as it is once again.

In 1978, Zaidi, then a frail young reporter with the Associated Press
of Pakistan (APP), was arrested and flogged for protesting against
the closure of the daily Musawat (a paper sympathetic to the Pakistan
People's Party of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the elected prime minister
whom Gen. Zia had overthrown).

"We were isolated then. The biggest difference now is the number of
people supporting the journalists. It's a mass movement, there's a
lot of commitment and participation, particularly of the younger
people," he told IPS.

Over a hundred journalists offered themselves for mass arrest in
Karachi on Nov 20 after the police attacked them with batons, refused
to let them march to the Governor House to present a memorandum, and
arrested their leaders. Police have attacked and arrested journalists
demonstrating all over the country over the last couple of days, from
Gotki and Hyderabad in Sindh province, to Faisalabad in the Punjab,
and Quetta in the western province of Balochistan.

Zaidi attributes the new energy largely to the TV channels. "They
tend to employ younger people, most of whom are very progressive.
They see these Black Laws (the new PEMRA ordinances) as a direct
attack on press freedom."

The Pakistan Association of Television Journalists has 621 members
around the country, 307 in the business capital Karachi alone. "Most
are less than 35 or 40 years old," estimated Faisal Aziz Khan, the 33-
year old secretary general of the association, talking to IPS at the
old sandstone Karachi Press Club building where he participated in a
hunger-strike as part of PFUJ's ongoing series of protests.

Geo News, Pakistan's first and largest 24-hour news channel, for
which the young reporter and television host has worked since its
launch in 2002, is part of the country's largest media company, the
Jang Group which owns several newspapers and magazines. Its
television network broadcasts from Media City, a free-zone in Dubai
from where it beams to a satellite network.

After Nov. 3 when PEMRA got cable operators in Pakistan to block the
independent channels, the independent channels continued to reach
viewers via streaming through the Internet and satellite transmission
throughout the shutdown despite huge revenue losses due to loss of
local advertising.

By Nov 16, most had capitulated and were back on air, having agreed
to conditions like the government's new "code of conduct" drawn up in
June by the Pakistan Broadcasters Association. Some agreed to drop
certain popular talk show hosts or anchors. Geo and ARY refused.

"Everyone wants Geo back on air," said Abdul Jabbar, who lives in
Korangi, a semi-slum in Karachi. "We don't know what's going on. PTV
(the state-owned Pakistan Television) only gives one side of the
story. Geo was reporting very openly, giving all sides. What is the
government trying to hide?"

The Musharraf regime in a dramatic development got the Dubai
government, on Nov. 17, to order these channels to stop broadcast
from Media City. The ban has hit Geo the hardest. The network alleges
that it is being targeted specifically in order to cripple it
financially, with estimated daily financial losses at half a million
to a million dollars.

"They asked us to get rid of three or four specific people, and also
some people on the print side," said Mir Ibrahim Rehman, the young
CEO of Geo. His family owns Pakistan's largest-selling newspaper, the
daily Urdu-language Jang, besides the English daily `The News' and
several other publications. Rehman estimates that the print side has
suffered a 30-40 percent decline in revenues after the government
pulled all its advertisements and pressurized private advertisers to
do the same.

"This is financial murder," he added. The Geo management has gone to
court to get at least the non-news channels back on air. The case is
pending before the Sindh High Court.

The blocking of these channels generated widespread outrage.
Pakistani expatriates and advocates of free expression around the
world have offered to get the news out, through cell phone messages,
helping them to hook up with satellite dish networks from New Jersey,
USA, to Bangkok, Thailand, putting up video feeds and streaming on
various websites, ranging from Human Rights Watch to blogs like
www.supportpakistan.org.

"We are going to continue demanding that the government take back the
new ordinances and restore all the channels, radio and TV," said Huma
Ali, president of the PFUJ and editor of the daily Urdu
language `Din' newspaper. Talking to IPS from Islamabad, he
added, "This is not a fight of journalists alone, but of all of civil
society, all those who want democracy."

"Unless freedom of expression is ensured, there can be no democracy,"
said Shamimur Rehman, a senior reporter for daily `Dawn' and
president of the Karachi Union of Journalists sitting at the Karachi
Press Club hunger-strike camp on Nov 11 under the watchful eye of
armed police and rangers who have virtually laid siege to the club
since Nov 3. Rehman was among the first journalists to be arrested on
Nov. 20.

"It is about the right to live in a civilized society. The real fight
is against the extremists," commented Owais Tohid, who heads a new
English language channel launched by Geo. Tohid led the twenty one
journalists from Geo English who courted arrest on Nov 20 in Karachi
in solidarity with detained colleagues like Shamimur Rehman.

The crisis for the first time in almost two decades is bringing
together the stakeholders. Media owners, broadcast as well as print,
are setting aside their rivalries, and patching up differences with
working journalists.

"The most positive thing I can see is the cooperation developing
between the publishers, broadcasters and the working journalists,"
said Kanak Mani Dixit, editor of the Nepali Himal Southasian, who was
in Pakistan recently on behalf of the International Federation of
Journalists. "This unity is important to keep media freedom alive."

(END/2007)

FM 103 and Geo are still off air. To hear the Geo audio broadcast, go
to www.jang.com.pk and click on 'Live Geo Audio News'. I'm listening
to Hamid Mir 'live on the footpath'. The guests are Javed Hashmi & Imran Khan,
Zaffar Abbas & Ansar Abbasi in front of a live audience - and there are no
commercial breaks!

'The News on Sunday' link will take you to the weekend paper we
launched in 1994 which I still think is one of the best in Pakistan.
This week's TNS Special Report is as informative as always - this
week, it's "Gagged" - on the media clampdown -
http://jang.com.pk/thenews/nov2007-weekly/nos-25-11-2007/spr.htm

Below, my article today in TNS (Encore section) originally titled
Resistance: 'The gift of a crisis' (they changed it to 'Beginning of
a movement') - the link is:
http://jang.com.pk/thenews/nov2007-weekly/nos-25-11-2007/enc.htm#1
Text below.

Yesterday we held a candlelight vigil in front of the Karachi Press
Club in solidarity with FM 103.6 and Geo TV. We're going to light
candles there every Saturday at 6 pm. We will continue to demand the
restoration of the Constitution and crucially, the judiciary. All over the
country, citizens are continuing to visit judges with flowers and tokens of
appreciation - people know that even when the martial law is lifted, as it must
be soon, nothing is going to change unless the judiciary is restored. We will
also continue to demand the lifting of the PEMRA ordinances restricting the
media.
beena

The News on Sunday, Nov 24, 2007
Beginning of a movement

The previous jumble of activists are now joined by the
young 'techies', artists, bankers and accountants -- a diverse, loose
coalition called the People's Resistance

By Beena Sarwar

It may not exactly be a revolution, but the revolutionary zeal is
there, particularly amongst the younger lot. Those who came of age
during Gen. Zia's regime and its aftermath may have a sense of deja
vu, but for newcomers into the activist field the sense of outrage
and betrayal is purer. Something about the present situation has
fired them up enough to engage in 'subversive' activities like public
demonstrations against the martial law for which they know they can
be arrested, tried for treason, or worse.

"We've been gifted with a crisis," is how Ahsan Jamil, a businessman
and an old friend in Karachi analyses it. "In countries where things
go well, a certain smugness or sense of complacency sets in. In
Pakistan, we have not been allowed that luxury."

The 'judicial crisis' that dominated Pakistani politics since March
this year has much to do with the general sense of discontent that
began building up among those who otherwise had nothing much to
complain about. This includes many among the 'Musharraf generation' --
  well-to-do young urbanites for whom the pre-email, pre-cell phone
and pre-independent television channels era is prehistoric --
corporate bankers and lawyers, chartered accountants, television
journalists (fabulously well-paid compared to their print
counterparts), software engineers and business-people. In general,
members of the amorphous, consumer-oriented urban middle class that
benefited materially from the liberal economic policy of the
Musharraf regime.

General Musharraf's announcement of an 'emergency' on Nov 3 stunned
many among this otherwise complacent generation -- enough to finally
act upon their convictions. In doing so, many re-grouped through
contacts originally formed during times of natural disaster, like the
Kashmir earthquake. They used the tools at their fingertips --
technology like the internet, email, chat, blogs and cell phone text
messages to come together, and also to join up with activists who
have a long (pre-cell phone) history of political struggle for
democracy in Pakistan.

Some landed up at the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in Lahore
the very next day for a public meeting to discuss the martial law and
were rounded up and detained for the next three days after the police
raided the HRCP office.

In Karachi too, the previous jumble of women's and human rights
activists, journalists, trade union members and workers of small left
wing political parties who used to come together under the banner of
Joint Action Committee (JAC), were now joined by those who have never
been 'activists' before: the young 'techies', artists, bankers and
accountants. They eventually named this diverse, loose coalition of
individuals and 'civil society,' the People's Resistance. "This is
the beginning of a movement," said someone at this meeting.

Whether or not that is the case, many are fired up enough to engage
in actions they've never done before. Some have gone to visit total
strangers at their homes -- the deposed judges of the High Courts,
taking flowers in appreciation of the stand these judges have
taken. "At first I thought this was all nonsense," said a seasoned
lawyer who has been helping to get his colleagues released from
Karachi Central Jail. "But it has made a huge difference to the
morale of these judges. They've never engaged with the public before,
and now they are proudly telling friends that 'civil society' came to
visit them."

Some new activists are using their talents to make and design posters
that they distribute at public meetings, or make stencils to spray
graffiti in public spaces. Some want to make their presence felt in
public with candle-light vigils and demonstrations. Many turn up at
short notice for what are called 'flash protests' at a given public
spot, each armed with his or her own banner or placard. They
demonstrate for a pre-determined short period of time, and disperse
before the police arrive.

"I want to collect a million signatures," said Ali Assad, 26. An
unlikely contender for the term 'activist,' this mild-looking, clean-
cut young investment banker, a graduate of the prestigious Lahore
University of Management Sciences, has purchased several note-books
and is working with friends to formulate the text that they want to
get people to sign on, incorporating basic demands like 'Lift the
Martial Law, Restore the Judiciary and Media Independence.' His
banker colleagues think he is slightly mad.

He's 'mad' alright -- as in angry. Angry at what is happening to his
country. An avid reader, he was already familiar with the works of
writers like Eqbal Ahmad and Noam Chomsky who reinforced his liberal
political views and innate distaste of anti-authoritarianism and
religious extremism. But he had never even participated in the anti-
Iraq war protests while a student at LUMS.

So what changed things for him? "The lawyers' movement and the media
coverage... lawyers being beaten on streets and for what? They were
fighting for judiciary not for power unlike political parties."
The bloodshed on May 12 when the Chief Justice was prevented from
coming into Karachi made Assad's "blood boil with hatred for what was
happening in the country." He was 'electrified' by the Islamabad
Supreme Court seminar. "People in their speeches were articulating my
sentiments, and suddenly my heroes became people like Talat Hussain
of Aaj TV, and lawyers like Aitzaz Ahsan and Munir A. Malik."

Most importantly, after the PCO orders of Nov 3, he found like minded
people with whom he could connect and coordinate. "I just wanted to
make my voice heard. I felt that in a country where the highest
judiciary can receive no protection, what is my 'auqaat' (standing)?
It scared me."

Another unlikely young activist is Adnan Mufti, a chartered
accountant, who is spreading the word among his colleagues.
Responding to an email from Judson Esty-Kendall, a lawyer in Maine
asking how he and his colleagues could support the Pakistani lawyers,
Mufti urged him to press the US government and its allies to push
Musharraf "to restore judiciary, not just simply demand end of
emergency in Pakistan. It appears that the US Govt is not pressing
for the restoration of judiciary and reinstatement of Honourable
Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and other judges who refused
to breach the Constitution of Pakistan. May I inform you that without
restoration of judges, Pakistan will never be out of the emergency."
These young people are aware of their limitations, but feels that
they must protest in whatever way they can.

"I won't sit still," says Assad. "Maybe ten years down the line I
will be able to do more. But I will continue to do something." He
likes the Dante quote in an advertisement released a few days ago by
several leading intellectuals and retired bureaucrats in Lahore:
"The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in the time of
crisis choose to maintain their neutrality."

Nov 26 update - With Nawaz Sharif back, and Musharraf about to become
a civilian president, the political atmosphere is heating up. The
restored TV channels are full of news about the nominations being
filed for the upcoming elections. How free and fair they can be under
the present set up and the courts packed with PCO judges is anyone's
guess. Geo still remains off-air. Tomorrow is the final court hearing
about at least restoring the sports, entertainment and youth
channels. Incidentally, Medea Benjamin of Codepink is in Pakistan with a
delegation to connect with activists here; David Barsamian of Alternative Radio
is arriving on Friday for the Eqbal Ahmad memorial lecture series.... Some more
people's activism updates below.
beena

1. Retired Justices Press Conference Tuesday 3.30, Karachi Press Club
2. Citizens’ delegation meets non-PCO judges of the Sindh High Court
3. Urgent medical attention for detained jurists and lifting of their detention
demanded
4. Lahore candle-light march for restoration of constitution
5. Banned FM 103 live show in Karachi Press Club
6. Footpath talk shows & DOCUMENTARY – ‘Missing in Pakistan’

1. Justice Wajihuddin and others will address a Press Conference Tuesday 3.30
pm, Karachi Press Club.

2. Citizens’ delegation meets non-PCO judges of the Sindh High Court

KARACHI, Nov 26: Judges of Sind High Court who did not take oath under the PCO
of Nov 3 were surprised when they gathered for dinner at one of their homes,
where a large delegation of ordinary citizens -- students, businessmen,
accountants, corporate executives, journalists, and activists – were waiting
with flowers and cake to meet them.. This meeting was part of the campaign to
let these judges know that the people of this country stand by them and are
proud of their principled stand.

The citizen’s delegation covered the entrance of the judge’s residence with rose
petals. As each judge entered, he was presented with a bouquet of flowers with
his name on it, on behalf of the people. On learning what the bouquets were for,
the flower-seller sent two bouquets ‘with love’ on his own account, said one of
the citizens. Members of the delegation were receiving messages from all over
Karachi as well as other cities asking them to convey their heartfelt gratitude
to the non-PCO judges.

As each judge entered, the citizens’ delegation gave them a standing ovation and
enthusiastic applause. A student from the Lahore University of Management
Sciences (LUMS) had flown in especially for the occasion with a letter for each
judge from his fellow alumni and students explaining their support. “For giving
us this glimmer of hope, this tangible inspiration, this possibility of change,
we thank you,” ended the letter.
“For your courage and resolve, for your steadfastness, for your selflessness, we
salute you. For carrying on the struggle and showing all of Pakistan what a
principled stand really means, we congratulate you.”

The average experience of the PCO-judges in the higher judiciary is about a year
and a half, it ensued during the following informal discussion. This was found
to be unprecedented. By comparison, the judges who did not take oath average
some ten years of judicial experience.

The judges particularly appreciated the principled stand of their colleagues who
had only recently been elevated from the District Courts, and of Justice Rehmat
Hussain Jaffery, who was due to retirement this November but did not take oath
despite being offered a position in the Supreme Court.

To a question about what was different this time considering that many judges
had refused to take oath under previous martial laws, Chief Justice Sabihuddin
pointed out that this time the number of such judges was far higher than ever
before. Justice Zafar Sherwani pointed out that this time the judiciary did what
the people expected them to do, which was to stand by the Constitution, rule of
law and the principles on which this country was founded.

Members of the civil society reiterated their vow to never accept the PCO judges
and their resolve to demand for reinstatement of the pre-PCO judiciary.

3. PEOPLE’S RESISTANCE PRESS RELEASE
Urgent medical attention to detained jurists and lifting of their detention
demanded

Karachi, Nov 26:  The People’s Resistance condemns the government’s criminal
negligence that has resulted in some of the most respected jurists in this
country becoming seriously ill while in prison where they are illegally detained
by the current regime.

Two such eminent jurists are Muneer A. Malik, former President Supreme Court Bar
Association of Pakistan, and Justice (retired) Tariq Mahmood.

Mr Malik suffered acute renal failure and was shifted from Attock jail to PIMS
Hospital, Islamabad, on Nov 23 while still under detention. This move was only
done after his medical condition deteriorated dangerously. Even then he was
reportedly denied immediate medical care for another 12 hours.

We welcome the lifting of detention orders against Mr Malik, although this was
done belatedly in a bid to save the regime further embarrassment. We applaud Mr
Malik’s resolve and mental strength for his cause despite all he has suffered.

No family member has yet been allowed to meet Justice (r.) Tariq Mahmood. His
wife Sohaila Tariq has been told by the authorities that he was shifted from
Sahiwal Jail to Services Hospital, Lahore on Nov 25 night. However, she has
still not been able to meet her husband, and has been given no information about
the seriousness or otherwise of his condition.

The People’s Resistance demands that the detention orders against Justice
Mahmood be lifted. We demand that their families, who include small children, be
allowed to visit and attend to them. We demand that they be provided medical
facilities according to their families’ wishes and satisfaction.

The People’s Resistance also notes with concern that many other innocent people
who have been picked up since Nov 3 are still languishing in prisons all over
the country, simply to create an atmosphere of terror in the country.

The People’s Resistance is a coalition of civil society organizations and
individuals who vow to continue the peaceful struggle for the restoration of the
Constitution, the judiciary, and media freedom.

4. Lahore candle-light march for restoration of constitution

Lahore, Nov 26: Scores of lawyers and civil society activists participated in a
candlelight march from the Lahore Press Club to the offices of Geo Television on
Davis Road, Lahore on Monday evening.

The participants carrying torches, placards and banners, raised slogans against
General Pervez Musharraf, imposition of emergency, suspension of the
constitution and the curbs he has placed on the freedom of superior judiciary as
well as electronic media. Paying tributes to all the lawyers arrested for
protesting against the Musharraf regime, the marchers vociferously demanded the
immediate release of senior bar leaders including Aitzaz Ahsan, Munir A Malik,
Justice (retired) Tariq Mehmood and Ali Ahmed Kurd. Special focus of the
procession was Munir A Malik and the ill treatment by the government. Some
protesters were carrying placards condemning the government for keeping gravely
ill Malik in detention. Earlier at the press club all of the marchers signed a
big sheet with messages written on it for Munir A Malik.

The participants of the march also recited radically anti-establishment poems by
Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Habib Jalib with some of Geo Television's most popular
political shows running in the background on a giant screen.

Prominent among those who took part in the march were Hina Jillani,
internationally renowned human rights lawyer, I A Rehman, senior journalists and
eminent human rights activist, Khawar Mumtaz and Neelam Hussain, leading women
rights activists, Shahid Kardar, former provincial finance minister and leading
economist of the country, Abbas Rashid, educationist and senior columnist, Cecil
Chaudhry, war hero and vocal advocate of minority rights and Shahtaj Qizalbash,
one of the most known members of the Joint Action Committee for People's Rights.

The participating lawyers included Anwar Kamal, Rabia Bajwa (former Finance
Secretary LHCBA), Mian Jamil Akhtar of the Save Judiciary Committee, Firdaus
Butt, (vice-president of the Lahore High Court Bar Association, Ruby Awan,
finance secretary of the Lahore High Court Bar Association, Umer Qureshi, Rana
Asad, Khurram Latif
Khosa, Salman Akram Raja, Shahab Qutub and Asad Jamal.

“Musharraf is nothing but a blood-hound (whose only mission in life is to
destroy people like Munir Malik, Justice Tariq) who are national assets. Still
no word on Ali Ahmad Kurd though”

5. Banned FM 103 live protest-art-music show

The well known cartoonist Rafiq Ahmed aka Feica of Dawn aka Billoo Bhai who is
also the Karachi Station Manager of FM 103 organised a live show outside Karachi
Press Club this evening, in line with the ‘footpath shows’ that Talat Hussain
and Hamid Mir have been doing in Islamabad. FM 103 families participated in the
show. Feica has also painted the boundary wall of KPC with slogans against PEMRA
and martial law. FM 103 is off air since Nov 3rd and its closure has directly
affected 100 families.
A media action committee of People’s Resistance participated in a candlelight
vigil outside the Press Club on Saturday, and plans to hold such vigils every
Saturday at 6 pm to demand the restoration of the Constitution, judiciary and
media freedom.

6. Footpath talk shows & DOCUMENTARY – ‘Missing in Pakistan’

Banned talk shows and the disappeared came together in Hamid Mir’s ‘footpath’
talk show the other day – available at the link -
http://pkpolitics.com/2007/11/24/capital-talk-footpath-24-november-07/ - sent by
Imran Ali to Shaheryar Azhar’s Forum with the plea to “watch a few minutes after
minute 40 to understand the anguish of someone whose family just "disappears".
Also listen to Imran Khan's and Zaffar Abbas's comments, it will only take five
to seven minutes of your precious time.”

Details on Amna Masood Janjua’s missing husband and other disappeared people is
also underscored in this article -
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/14/news/pakistan.php. To see the documentary
'Missing in Pakistan’ by Ziad Zafar on the disappeared people in Pakistan (aired
on 21st Nov at FAST-NU Lahore - blocked by the authorities) see Missing in
Pakistan - Documentary >> Teeth Maestro's Blog &
http://missinginpakistan.wordpress.com/ - Let’s not forget that the issue of the
disappeared was one of the things that most irked the Pakistani establishment
about the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Iftikhar Choudhry, who was hearing
the HRCP’s joint petition to recover over 140 missing persons…

Washington Post article on the banned ‘footpath talk shows’
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/24/AR2007112401284.\
html?referrer=emailarticlepg

p.s. Imran Ali writes (and I agree): “At this moment the most important
practical step you can take is to ask any one you know among opposition parties,
PPP, PML N, JI, JUI, PTI, etc, to take a ‘united’ stand. All of us know
somebody. Just ask them to take a united stand, whatever it is. And unite on a
one point agenda, restoration of the judiciary.”

Nov 27 update

As Musharraf plans to take off his uniform (err... will this be
televised?), the 'civil society' agitation continues. Below, three
updates re: the media, the lawyers, the students…

1. GEO AUR JEENAY DO – court case update and People's Resistance
programme
2. Pakistan Bar Council's call to prevent government from forcibly
evicting Supreme Court Chief Justice and Judges from their official
residences.
3. Students of 15 Lahore varsities demand end to emergency

1. GEO AUR JEENAY DO

Several people turned up at the Sindh High Court hearing today re:
the Geo case (Independent Media Company) for the restoration of its
channels in Pakistan.

The Deputy Attorney General of Sindh told the two-member bench
hearing Geo's case that there was no evidence to show that the
government had stopped the channels' broadcast. When pushed he
reiterated that the government had not stopped the channels'
broadcast. He claimed that the Dubai government's suspension of Geo
News has nothing to do with the Pakistan government.

He said that the Attorney General himself wants to argue the case,
and initially requested an adjournment for two weeks (!). Geo's
lawyer Mohammad Ali Mazhar pleaded against any further delays to the
case, pointing out that the network is suffering huge financial
losses and has to pay salaries to 4,500 employees, many of whom were
present at the hearing (Hamid Mir, Suhail Warraich, Rauf, Hina Bayat,
Absar Alam, among others). He said that the Dubai government had only
blocked the transmission of Geo News, while the other channels are
still being broadcast from Dubai and should be allowed on air in
Pakistan as well. Negotiations with the Dubai and the Pakistan
governments are still going on, because of which the Geo management
is trying to be cautious.

The court will now hear the case on Thursday and decide on the
restoration of the suspended Geo channels.

I don't think anyone expected very much from these kangaroo courts –
many of us got pretty angry listening to the inane arguments of the
Deputy Attorney General trying to delay the case further and evading
responsibility. The journalists' bodies as a whole don't accept these
courts anyway. The Geo management says that this is a test case,
where the courts have to try and prove their independence.

They should get the cable operators to come to court as witnesses. If
the government is denying that they shut down transmission, then how
did all the cable-fed television screens in Pakistan go blank
simultaneously on Nov 3 afternoon? Someone must have told the cable
operators to block transmission…

Even if all the other Geo channels are going via satellite around the
world (entertainment, sports and youth), the biggest viewership is in
Pakistan where the bulk of their advertising (revenue) is. Also, Geo
can only broadcast its sports channel, Geo Super in Pakistan, so if
cable operators here are still blocking the network, it is
effectively shut down. They had very expensive, exclusive rights to
the recent India-Pakistan cricket series which viewers were deprived
of.

2.  November  27,2007  P R E SS  R E L E A S E

Pakistan Bar Council
Condemnation of Government Threat to forcibly evict the Chief
Justice and Judges of Supreme Court from their official residences.

Whereas General Musharaf has unconstitutionally suspended the
Constitution and imposed so called Emergency;

And whereas the Chief Justice of Pakistan and other judges of the
Supreme Court and the High Courts who refused to take oath under the
unconstitutional PCO are being forcibly prevented from performing
their duties and functions under the Constitution;

And whereas the Chief Justice of Pakistan and other judges of the
Supreme Court are being held in house arrest and totally
incommunicado;

And whereas the lawyers and the people of Pakistan recognize only
those Judges as valid and constitutional judges who refused to make
oath under the unconstitutional PCO;

And whereas the Chief Justice and Judges of the Supreme Court under
the Constitution are entitled to stay in their official residences in
the Judges colony of Islamabad;

And whereas the Interior Minister of the partisan and biased so
called caretaker government has threatened to forcibly expel and
evict the Chief Justice and the judges from their residences on and
after 30 November 2007.

The Pakistan Bar Council, therefore, condemns the so called caretaker
government for its intent and announcement to forcibly evict and
expel the Chief Justice and the Judges of the Supreme Court from
their official residences.

It is resolved that the lawyers will resist forcible and illegal
expulsion and eviction of the Chief Justice and the Judges of the
Supreme Court from their official residences.

The Pakistan Bar Council calls upon all lawyers and other
professionals, members of all political parties, members of civil
society and human rights activists to come to Islamabad on 30
November 2007 and hold a vigil   outside the Judges' colony on 30th
November and 1st December and resist and prevent the coercive
machinery of the government from forcibly evicting and expelling the
Chief Justice and Judges of the Supreme Court from their official
residences.

The Council shall file contempt application against the officials
responsible for the threat of eviction as and when the Chief Justice
and Judges of the Supreme Court are restored.

(Qazi Muhammad Anwar)
Chairman Executive Committee

(Mirza Aziz Akbar Baig)
Vice-Chairman
(Hamid   Khan)
Member

(Syed Qalb-i-Hassan)
Member

3.  Students of 15 Lahore varsities demand end to emergency
http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=83047

Tuesday, November 27, 2007
By our correspondent

LAHORE: After intensive negotiations, students of 15 universities and
institutes of the City have agreed to a unified stance on turmoil in
Pakistan.

A statement by the LUMS Student Movement, said, "We, students of
universities in Lahore, raise our collective voice against the
current state of emergency rule and unite on a common agenda. Our
demands are aimed at ensuring people rights through a free and fair
election process."

It added, "We unite to condemn the coercive actions of the government
that have moved Pakistan away from the path of peoples' rule towards
internal chaos through extreme restrictions of constitutional
freedoms."

The statement reads, "We call upon the youth all over Pakistan to
unite in order to denounce the state of emergency and martial law
imposed on the country's judicial organ and the people of Pakistan."

"We declare our intent to remain in steadfast opposition to the
actions of the regime and boycott the upcoming elections if the
government does not accept the demands, including lifting of martial
law, restoration of the judiciary to its pre-November 3 state,
restoration of the Constitution to its pre-November 3 state, removal
of curbs on the media and release of political prisoners and dropping
of charges against them."

It added "We declare our decision of refusing to recognise as
legitimate any government formed under an election process that
precludes the acceptance of the demands. We call upon all political
parties of Pakistan that have repeatedly stated that they stand for
democracy and justice to stand by their declarations and boycott the
election held before the basic demands were met."

The Judiciary and the Media are Interlinked - is what speakers like
Justice (r) Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim stressed at the solidarity event
organised by People's Resistance in front of Geo Karachi on Tuesday. He
brought the audience's attention to the statement signed by 17 retired
judges against the de facto martial law, demanding a restoration of the
pre-Nov 3 judiciary. (incidentally, several senior retired armed forces
officers also signed a joint statement urging Musharraf to step down,
not just from his army, but also from the civilian post).

Below, links to two stories re: the independence of the judiciary, and
the media.

beena

1. POLITICS-PAKISTAN: Independence of Judiciary - The Main Issue
By Beena Sarwar

KARACHI, Nov 28 (IPS) - As Gen. Pervez Musharraf doffs his army uniform
and takes oath as the civilian President of Pakistan, two crucial
issues stand out: continuing curbs on the judiciary and media, and
general elections, scheduled for early January, that observers say
cannot be fair and free under emergency rule.
Full story at: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40254

2. MEDIA-PAKISTAN: TV Talk Shows Take to the Streets - Literally
By Zofeen Ebrahim

KARACHI - The question on the TV talk show was simple. Celebrity anchor
Hamid Mir asks guests from various political parties if they are
prepared to participate in a general election under emergency rule. As
the cameras roll, the guests squirm uncomfortably in their seats and
make non-committal noises.
Full story at: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40253

Updates:
1. Elections – the boycott debate
2. Geo TV
3. Muneer A. Malik

1. Boycott polls debate

The APDM has announced it will boycott the elections, the PPP and the
JUI are still holding out – for the chance to come into power, is the
general view. Many of those involved in the anti-martial law movement
have been calling for all the political parties to boycott polls.
They sent around the email and cell phone contacts of party members
of the PPP, PML-N etc, and people have been enthusiastically
messaging and emailing to pressurize the parties for a boycott. Now
that PML-N has fallen in with that, people are trying to get the JUI-
F contacts to send around. The argument is the elections are not
going to be free and fair under the present dispensation, and the
parties should not participate in elections until the judiciary is
restored.

Well, that ain't happening without the elections. As our friend, the
lawyer Faisal Siddiqi (Muneer A. Malik's partner) points out, "The
judges cannot be restored without participating in the election. The
constitutional and politically realistic option of restoration is
through the new assembly."

We need to engage with people towards political organization and
mobilization rather than spending time and energy on a boycott. A
boycott will serve no purpose other than further de-politicising and
alienating the people.

2. Dubai allows Geo to resume satellite broadcast; Sindh High Court
hearing again postponed

The Dubai government has (despite continuing pressure from the Pk
govt) allowed Geo TV to resume transmission via satellite since the
network was not violating any of Dubai's laws. The News report quotes
the Dubai Prime Minister as saying that the government did not want
to send the wrong impression to foreign investors -
http://thenews.jang.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=11460

Geo has been available all this time through the web (audio and
video), but cable operators in Pakistan are still blocking it. As
mentioned in the earlier update, the government (Deputy Attorney
General - DAG) claimed that the government did not give any orders to
this effect. The final hearing at the Sindh High Court was supposed
to take place on Thursday but the DAG again argued for postponement.
The judges played along by pushing it on to Dec 4 – the tactic seems
to be to delay the hearing as much as possible.

The DAG wanted Geo to join up with another case that has been lodged
in the Supreme Court – incidentally, instituted by one Chaudhry
Naseer, Advocate, a close associate of Attorney General Malik Qayyum,
who was on the government's panel of lawyers assisting the likes of
Sharifuddin Pirzada in recent cases. (Incidentally the Lahore Bar
Association on Nov 26 cancelled Qayyum's membership and banned him
for life from entering the bar premises -
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007%5C11%5C27%
5Cstory_27-11-2007_pg13_4)

The sticking point continues to be the govt's demands for the Jang
group to sack certain people, not just from Geo but also from the
print side.

ARY has been back on for a couple of days - having agreed to drop
current affairs talk shows with hosts like Kashif Abbasi, apparently.

3. Muneer A. Malik update:

Zohra Yusuf spoke to the doctor treating Muneer Malik at SIUT. "He's
improving and getting back his spirit & strength. Insisted on walking
for his tests, instead of using a wheel chair. I think visitors
should stay away till he's home."

I sent a report to The News yesterday after talking to Malik's
brother Saeed Malik, who arrived from the USA on Saturday. "If you
care for Muneer A. Malik, please don't try to meet him," he
said. "They couldn't break his will, so they tried to break his body.
You take a perfectly healthy man, and within three weeks he is near
death. He should have been shifted to the hospital days earlier. By
the time he was sent to PIMS, he had acute renal failure. He was
still under detention and his hospital room was surrounded by a
cordon of police."  A large number of visitors thronged the ward on
hearing of his arrival. Most were ordinary people, men and women, who
were at the Institute to attend to their own relatives. Detailed
report at: http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=83516

Sabeen Mahmud of BITS has designed a wonderful poster featuring
M.A.M. – you can view and download it from www.pakvoices.net

beena

Dec 2 -07 – some updates

Eqbal Ahmad Distinguished Lecture Series presents David
Barsamian, "What we say goes - America & the World", Tue, 04 Dec
2007, 4pm, Karachi Arts Council Auditorium - Eqbal Ahmad Foundation
in collaboration with Badalti Dunya – magazine -
http://www.alternativeradio.org/barsamian.shtml
(David Barsamian is also speaking today – Sunday – at 6.30 pm at T2F)

Plus:
1. "Express solidarity with Pakistan lawyers" – documentary on
YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqEJJOniLu4
2. Excellent Special Report on lawyers, The News on Sunday -
http://jang.com.pk/thenews/dec2007-weekly/nos-02-12-2007/spr.htm
3. MEDIA: Yasir Husain's report on FM 103's street protest -
http://jang.com.pk/thenews/dec2007-weekly/nos-02-12-2007/dia.htm#6
4. Capital suggestion - Don't boycott, unite  - Dr Farrukh Saleem -
http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=83847
5. PFUJ condemns Registration of FIR against journalists' bodies
(press release, text below)
6. US Human Rights Activists Stage 24-Hour Vigil at the Home of
Prominent Pakistani Lawyer, Aitzaz Ahsan (press release, text below)
7. WAF gathering in Lahore, Dec 3 (invite – details below)
8. WE ARE NOT FREE: The Future of the Media in Pakistan – Open
Society Institute seminar in New York, Dec 5

  beena

1. PFUJ Condemns Registration of FIR

RAWALPINDI [Dec. 01]: The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists
[PFUJ] strongly condemns the registration of FIR against the PFUJ and
the Rawalpindi/Islamabad Union of Journalists [RIUJ] by the
government, which it believes is aimed at putting more fetters on the
journalists bodies, engaged in struggle for freedom of the media and
rule of law in the country.

Condemnation came in a resolution adoped at a meeting of the Federal
Executive Council [FEC] of the PFUJ, now in session at Rawalpindi
Islamabad Press Club, after examining contents of the FIR lodged at
Abpara Police Station in Islamabad. The PFUJ emphatically declared
that it or any of its affiliated unions have nothing to do with the
allegedly slanderous and derogatory pamphlet, allegedly distributed
during its protest camp in Islamabad on November 14, which according
to the FIR became a reason for the registration of the case.

The FEC meeting, being chaired by the PFUJ President Mr. Huma Ali,
and attended by the FEC members and officer bearers of its affiliated
unions from across the country, declared that registration of the
case against PFUJ and RIUJ reflects malafide on part of the
government to ban the organization and for further crack down on
media. The meeting demanded immediate withdrawal of the case and
warned the government that failure to do so will effect the ongoing
process of dialogue between the PFUJ and government.

The PFUJ reaffirms its resolve to continue its struggle for the media
freedom and economic rights of the people employed in media industry
in Pakistan. The FEC also warned that government will be held
responsible for the consequences, if any action is taken against the
PFUJ or any of its UJ or member of the journalists bodies.
THe FEC also appealed to the APNS and CPNE and IFJ and other
internalists journalists bodies to take notice the government's
continued onslaught against the journalist community and their
respresentative bodies in Pakistan.

Secretary General, PFUJ
Mazhar Abbas


2. Press Release - US Human Rights Activists Stage 24-Hour Vigil at
the Home of Prominent Pakistani Lawyer, Aitzaz Ahsan, Who is Under
House Arrest

When: 12 noon, December 2 until 12 noon, December 3
Where: 5 Zaman Park, Lahore
Contact in Pakistan: 0308-204-2346

Medea Benjamin and Tighe Barry, members of the U.S. human rights
group Global Exchange and the women¹s peace group CODEPINK, came to
Pakistan to learn about the political situation since emergency rule
was declared on November 3. One of the people they are most anxious
to meet with is prominent lawyer/politician Aitzaz Ahsan, who was
jailed by the Musharraf government from November 3 to 25, when he was
then placed under house arrest.

Pakistan government representatives in the US have said that the
lawyers arrested under the emergency law have been released. But when
the visiting human rights activists tried to meet with Aitzaz Ahsan
on December 1, they discovered that his home is still designated a
³sub jail² and he remains hostage in his own home, unable to go out
or to receive visitors. For that reason the U.S. activists decided to
stage a vigil outside his home.

"Pervez Musharrah is telling the world that he is committed to
democracy. So it is outrageous that the head of the nation¹s Supreme
Court Bar Association, Aitzaz Ahsan, remains under house arrest,"
said Tighe Barry.

"We have come a long way to meet this man who we have heard is one of
the great heroes of the struggle for democracy in Pakistan," said
Medea Benjamin. "We will sit patiently in front of his door and sleep
overnight in front of his door, asking his jailers to allow us in."

3. WAF gathering in Lahore, Dec 3

To sustain the momentum of the movement, WAF is organizing its next
event on 3rd December at 3pm. This will be a gathering of people
(women, men, students, lawyers, political parties etc) in which the
participants will sit in circles, for a session of songs, poems,
skits etc. Our focus will be on the restoration of the judiciary.

Venue: Lawrence Garden, Baghi-Jinnah behind Quaid-e-Azam Library
Date: 3rd December 2007 (Monday)
Time: 3:00 p.m

You are cordially invited to come and participate in the event

R.S.V.P
Neelam Hussain- 0300-4800360
Naila Naz- 0300-4536313

4. The Open Society Institute – seminar in New York: WE ARE NOT FREE:
The Future of the Media in Pakistan

The independent Pakistani media have played a key role in reporting
and resisting the ongoing crackdown against civil society in Pakistan—
and in so doing, have become targets of the crackdown themselves.
With key journalists gagged, others beaten and arrested, independent
broadcasters banned from the airwaves, and censorship under the guise
of a new "code of conduct", press freedom is under attack. The Open
Society Institute presents Kiran Khalid's new documentary short on
media freedom in Pakistan, updated with new interviews since the
imposition of martial law on November 3rd. The screening (15 minutes)
will be followed by a panel discussion on press freedom and the
current crisis in Pakistan.

Speakers include KIRAN KHALID, SAMI ABRAHIM, BOB DIETZ, AHMED RASHID
(by videoconference  from Washington, DC) and TALAT HUSSAIN (by phone
from Pakistan, to be confirmed)

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5TH, 6:00 P.M. - 8:00 P.M.

RSVP TO cepopenforum@...
Please include your full name and affiliation.

Details at:
http://www.soros.org/initiatives/mena/events/media_20071205