By Muhammad Najeeb, IANS
Islamabad : Ten days after the imposition of emergency in Pakistan, lawyers protested in different parts of the country Monday, while political parties opposed President Pervez Musharraf’s plans of holding elections under emergency.
In Islamabad, the areas around the Supreme Court building were cordoned off to the general public and the few people who were allowed in had to go through stringent security checks.
The lawyers have announced that they will continue their protests unless the emergency announced on Nov 3 is lifted and the constitution that is being held in abeyance is restored.
Political parties have had mixed reactions to Musharraf’s announcement that the general elections will be held before Jan 9.
“The international community should take notice of this announcement. Independent elections cannot be held under emergency,” said former prime minister Nawaz Sharif who lives in exile in Saudi Arabia. He added that his party may boycott the elections if they were held under emergency.
Another former prime minister Benazir Bhutto said that Musharraf should immediately lift emergency. Bhutto, who heads the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), also demanded the reinstatement of deposed chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and appointment of an independent head of the election commission.
Chaudhry has rejected allegations of corruption levelled against him and the higher judiciary by Musharraf.
“If there was any proof of corruption against me, why so many other judges of the superior judiciary have been removed through an unconstitutional act?” he asked.
In a statement issued to a TV channel, Chaudhry said that an independent judiciary was not acceptable to Musharraf because he wanted not only to get himself elected as president but also to manipulate the next election to form a government of his choice.
“Election manipulation is not possible under an independent judiciary,” he said in the statement.
He said the government had been edgy over cases relating to the president’s dual office, contempt of court in the deportation of Nawaz Sharif, missing people, and proceedings against the land mafia.
The rightwing Jamaat-e-Islami has also said that it might not take part in the elections if these were held under emergency. The party has appealed to all political forces in the country to boycott the elections under General Musharraf.
“Musharraf should go and a caretaker set-up should hold the elections,” Jammat-e-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed said in a statement issued from Mansoora, the party’s headquarter in Lahore where he is under house arrest.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described Musharraf’s decision to hold elections before Jan 9 as a positive step, but said the emergency must go as well.
“And the first step is to make certain that the state of emergency ends,” she said.
Rice, however, rejected the suggestion that the general must also step down, saying that “this is not a personal matter about President Musharraf”.
Media persons in Pakistan are also continuing their protest against the restrictions imposed after the declaration of emergency. Representatives of the electronic media have moved the Sindh High Court against the restrictions.
Meanwhile, the world’s biggest group representing journalists has condemned the Pakistani government’s decision to expel three British newspaper reporters, saying such acts will only encourage instability.
“Banning the international media and gagging local journalists will not solve problems,” Aidan White, general secretary of the International Federation of Journalists, said in a statement.