Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Pakistan - Here We Go Again


House arrests are back in fashion as the favourite tool to stifle dissent in Pakistan. The government has placed opposition leaders including Imran Khan and Nawaz Sharif under house arrest and has rounded up "hundreds of lawyers and opposition activists" according to The Guardian.

Many opposition leaders are said to have gone into hiding. Pakistani lawyers, supported by opposition leaders, are due to begin a protest tomorrow dubbed the long march to demand the restoration of judges removed from office by the former president Pervez Musharraf.

President Asif Ali Zardari, husband of the assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, has failed to fulfil a pledge to restore the justices since being elected last year.


But the ban on public asssemblies is all for a good cause, namely, "to prevent a bad law-and-order situation." Indeed.

Makes you wonder how much longer the Pakistan Army will wait before it puts Zardari's wobbly government out of its misery?

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