Translated material
To the presidency through the courts
Pakistani opposition did not stop Musharraf
Pakistan's Supreme Court yesterday rejected the last of six opposition lawsuits against General Pervez Musharraf's re-election to a second presidential term. This removed the last obstacle to Musharraf becoming president for the next five years. The previous five lawsuits were heard on November 19. The opposition sought to cancel the results of the elections held in Pakistan on October 6, appealing to the article of the constitution prohibiting the simultaneous holding of the posts of commander-in-chief and president. Now Musharraf has the opportunity to keep his promise to step down as commander-in-chief and take the presidential oath as a civilian. As the country's Attorney General Malik Qayum said, this will happen this coming weekend “or immediately after it.”Musharraf has no plans to lift the state of emergency introduced on November 3. In his opinion, this is the key to the peaceful holding of parliamentary elections scheduled for January 8, 2008. However, yesterday the Ministry of Justice of Pakistan announced the release of 5.6 thousand people detained by the authorities after the declaration of a state of emergency. Among them are opposition activists and human rights activists. Many judges and lawyers who criticized Musharraf's policies are still in prison or under house arrest. A total of 623 people remain in custody.
55-year-old Imran Khan, a former famous cricketer and now the leader of the opposition party Tehreek-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice), was also released. Police arrested him a week ago for participating in a banned demonstration in Lahore. Once behind bars, he began a hunger strike, demanding the end of the state of emergency. As soon as he left prison, Khan immediately announced his party’s boycott of the upcoming parliamentary elections.
Trying to put pressure on Islamabad, Great Britain is seeking a discussion at the summit of 53 countries of the British Commonwealth, which opens today in Uganda, on the issue of suspending Pakistan's membership in this organization. The head of the transitional government of Pakistan, Muhammadmian Soomro, recently turned to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown with a request for a “slight delay” in the decision, explaining that “we are not talking about years or months.”