He has been ruling Pakistan since 1999 when he wrestled power in a military-led coup, but never before had he been so desperate. Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf is gradually coming to terms with the realization that cracks are appearing on his wall and that the people are rising sharply against his rule.
Domestic chaos and allegations of dictatorship have been riffed; colluding with that is his highly unpopular stance to partner the US government in the war on terror. With the Presidential elections knocking heavily on the door, the President seems to have restored to frantic measures to stretch his rule further.
On Saturday, Pakistani police arrested more than a dozen opposition activists without any specific reason whatsoever. This was more of a preventive act, executed in apprehension of disturbances during presidential elections in the country on October 6. But what’s surprising is that none of the detained opposition party members have been legally charged or been given particular reasons for their detention. They were arrested practically randomly and some were even lifted from their homes.
Most of the 20 detained belong either to the party led by exiled former prime minister Nawaz Sharif or to parties in a conservative religious alliance and more arrests were anticipated on Sunday. The move indeed is highly cynical and one that can hardly be justified. With none of the members being formally charged, the Pakistani President seems to have taken the country’s law into his own hands to seek reelection to the Presidential office.
Among the notable arrested in this preventive detention measure were the chairman of Sharif’s faction of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) Raja Zafar-ul-Haq and firebrand leader Javed Hashmi. Opposition parties have rightly dismissed this measure as cowardly and unlawful and protests won’t stop at that.
The Presidential election in Pakistan is around the corner and criticisms against Musharraf and his defective domestic as well as international policies have been piling. The President has also been severely rebuked by the United States and the opposition parties for not being able to contain the Taliban insurgency in the State.
In all likelihood, Mr. Musharraf would get elected as the new President in next week’s presidential elections and will be the head of the country for the next 5 years, but there will be question marks on the validity of the polls since most of the major opposition members have been slapped with a 30-day detention.
However, January’s national elections could see the President lose his majority in Parliament and that could signal the fall of the General.
Image Source: The Muslim Woman
Source: Reuters, Washington Post
