H14993
Headlines : InternationalPakistan: Chaudhry Chuffed
Now that the Pakistani Supreme Court has completely disobeyed President-by-coup General Musharraf by giving a judicial seat back to one of his most vocal enemies, there remains few options for the incumbent who is going to face elections later this year.
He could allow the elections to take place fairly, but odds are that he will try his best to set up a caretaker government to re-elect him when the time comes. With more and more voices forming against him, fair play does not look to be in the general’s arsenal.
[Posted By mercenary]Republished from The Economist
Pakistan’s ubiquitous intelligence agencies got it wrong. They had assured General Pervez Musharraf, the country’s president, that the Supreme Court would uphold his removal in March of the country’s chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry, on charges of corruption and misconduct. But the court unanimously struck down the president’s action on July 20th and restored Mr Chaudhry to his former glory. As lawyers and pro-democracy activists erupted with joy, the government puzzled over what to do next.
Many Pakistanis say this is a milestone in the struggle for an independent judiciary. During the trial, which lasted four months, Mr Chaudhry led caravans of rapturous supporters around the country and addressed huge crowds on the need for judges to be free of political pressure. On May 12th the government tried to stop him speaking in Karachi. In the clashes that followed 42 people were killed, most of them Chaudhry supporters. That provoked an anti-Musharraf backlash, and increased pressure on the Supreme Court to rule against the president. Mr Chaudhry’s principal lawyer, Aitzaz Ahsan, constantly exhorted the judges to protect and support their “chief”.
Posted by mercenary
Exiled from Dubai to Vancouver, I cite media, politics, and of course, the meaning of Liff. I've been a media student, a Lit. undergrad, a radio host and a few other things to pass the time. Been around the third world, as well as a bit of the first. And it...
RELATED ITEMS
- Pakistan: A Mosque Red with Blood
Posted by mercenary on Friday, July 20th 2007 - Pakistan: Conspiracy Theories
Posted by mercenary on Sunday, July 1st 2007 - Pakistan's Musharraf increasingly isolated
Posted by northyorker on Sunday, June 3rd 2007 - Pakistan's Press: Gagging on It
Posted by mercenary on Sunday, June 10th 2007 - Pakistan rally gives hero's welcome to suspended chief justice
Posted by northyorker on Thursday, June 7th 2007 - Pakistan: A General State of Disarray
Posted by mercenary on Tuesday, May 29th 2007 - Indian soap to divert protests in Pakistan?
Posted by Szamko on Sunday, April 15th 2007 - Pakistan: Politics by Other Means
Posted by mercenary on Thursday, August 9th 2007
If the General plays his cards right in Afghanistan, he could be in for a big win. The US MIC as good as threatened to bomb Pakistan off the map if Musharraf didn’t start beating some more submissive behavior out of his pueblo — and it’s not like he wasn’t trying — so I think that might have tipped something.
I think we’re looking at some big surprises coming round the bend in the next few months. VERY big surprises.
Interesting that Bhutto is talking about making a return. She got nudged out — on “corruption charges” in 96. Same year the Taliban swept into power in Afghanistan and the KLA started ethnically cleansing Kosovo (they’re Europe’s premiere heroin dealership (among other things)).
Originally the labs were in Pakistan.
I wonder if this is when the US corridors of power got addicted to the cash infusions. They ostensibly started the dealership to fight the Soviets and then it was just too good to put down.
Plan Colombia soon followed.
I’m pretty sure Benazir has some contacts in the corporatocracy that Mushie Mushie feels it might be desperately necessary to leverage.
A “Chaudhry Scandal In A Nutshell” posted by yours truly — at the time of the demonstrations — here (with lots of pictures (Chebol was there)) — in case you were wondering who mighta killed them “supporters” (no, no, not Chebol — go see, go see).
OPEN QUOTE
A detective in the Italian carabinieri said that Kosovo Albanians in Milan were “among the most dangerous traffickers in drugs and in arms. They are determined men, violent and prepared to go to any lengths.” In Milan, a source inside the British National Criminal Intelligence Service marveled, “They threw out the Italian Mafia families. That is how violent they are.”
END OF QUOTE
I know, you’re asking, wth does Pervez Musharraf have to do with the Albanian Mafia?
Me too.
Global Heroin Trade Routes
My geography is WEAK. What’s that big pink chunk over there to the right of Saudi Arabia?
Pakistan
Afghanistan
PBS made Iran pink too
but. Doesn’t look like the routes have to go AROUND Iran? In fact, doesn’t it look like the routes are leveraging the Baku pipeline and Chechnya? Is that Blackwater? “Protecting” that pipeline?
How come Turkey doesn’t get to be “pink” (in the PBS map)? If we can make Colombia and Mexico pink, surely we can make Turkey pink.
But why is Iran pink?
. . .
Maybe the Art Department thought Iran was Turkey.
OPEN QUOTE
By 2000, Germany’s Federal Police were reporting that Kosovo Albanians accounted for 80 percent of the heroin brought into Europe. Michael Levine, a former official in the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), claims that the CIA was aware of KLA involvement in the drug trade. The CIA “protected them in every way they could. As long as the CIA is protecting the KLA, you’ve got major drug pipelines protected from any police investigation.” Levine said the evidence was “irrefutable” and based on information he obtained from “sources inside the DEA.”
Don’t forget the Kurdish PKK, which has been running heroin for decades.
British Security Services sources are quoted as saying that the PKK was responsible for 40% of the heroin sold in the European Union
Good god Shazam, are you seriously quoting the Jamestown Foundation?
OPEN QUOTE (from das wikie)
The foundation’s 17-member board includes Chairman Clinton I. Smullyan and Vice Chairman R. James Woolsey, Jr.. The other members are Zbigniew Brzezinski, Barbara Buchanan, Jams H. Burnley, Peter C. Cook, Diana Denman, Willem deVogel, Edward O. Gaylord, James G. Gildwitz, Patrick W. Gross, Ralph Hauenstein, James Hauslein, Artemis Joukowsky, Woody Peterson, and Arthur Waldron. Vice President Dick Cheney and Marcia Carlucci, wife of Frank Carlucci, are former board members.
END OF QUOTE
Not to mention “British Security Services sources” — LOL
Syria doesn’t even give it’s own Kurds citizenship — I’d be surprised, REALLY surprised, if they coughed up “safe haven and . . . regional intelligence information” in support of Angry Kurds With Weapons.
James Woolsey is a former CIA director. AND. and and a member of the Advisory Board for the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs. A PNAC signatory . . . .
etc etc etc got in himmel!
No. wait. of course you’re not seriously quoting the buzzards. LOL. very funny.
Are you making fun of my faith in Gregory Elich?
It’s a really good book. If you liked the Mamdani, you’d love the Elich. I bet you Graeber has it on his bookshelf….
It’s very kung fu.