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Political Development in Pakistan
By KTM Metro Reporter in Kathmandu
On November 22, 2007, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour said that Pakistan must reinstate all judges dismissed by the president after imposing a state of emergency on November 03, 2007 to make the election scheduled for January 08, 2008 meaningful and really a democratic exercise according to the reports of the Reuter.
After a meeting in Kampala, Uganda, the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) suspended Pakistan from its membership after Pakistan failed in lifting a state of emergency within the 10-day time given to it. Secretary General Don McKinnon said Pakistan was being suspended "pending restoration of democracy and the rule of law". "CMAG agreed that notwithstanding some progress by the Pakistan government since its last meeting, the situation in Pakistan continued to represent a serious violation of the Commonwealth's fundamental values," Mr. McKinnon said according to the BBC NEWS of November 23, 2007. This is the second time that the commonwealth suspended Pakistan from its membership; the first was in 1999 after General Pervez Musharraf usurped the power from elected-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Will Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf meet the fate of the Shah of Iran, another "unpopular" leader that the United States tried to prop up? In its upcoming issue, Newsweek discusses this question, pointing to "uneasy relationship" between Washington and Musharraf and says that it brings to mind another "compromised" leader who flew into exile in 1979 according to the news posted on “Rediff news” website on November 26, 2007.
President Pervez Musharraf took off his army uniform on Wednesday, November 28 and took the oath of the civilian president of Pakistan on Thursday, November 29, 2007. He imposed a state of emergency in Pakistan, put thousands of judges and lawyers behind bars, removed the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court that posed challenges to his reelection to the presidency, and clampdown on the media (electronic and print). He succeeded to get re-elected at the high cost to the nation.
On Sunday, November 25, 2007, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif returned to Pakistan from exile in a tumultuous welcome. Mr. Sharif and Benazir Bhutto have filed their nominations for the election in January 2008 but both of them kept their option to boycott the elections if a state of emergency was not lifted.
