Just goes to show what the dictator will do if you oppose him.
Pakistan’s Sharif Barred From Meeting Detained Former Top Judge ](http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=auiV9Zweyqe4&refer=home)
Dec. 6 (Bloomberg) – Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was prevented by police from meeting the deposed top judge Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudhry, who has been detained at his house since President Pervez Musharraf imposed emergency rule on Nov. 3.
Opposition leader Sharif, who is leading calls for the reinstatement of deposed judges, was stopped about 500 yards from Chaudhry’s house in the capital, Islamabad, today. Police have placed barricades around Chaudhry’s house and haven’t allowed any opposition politicians, including cricket captain turned lawmaker Imran Khan, to meet him in the past month.
Former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Sharif are threatening to boycott parliamentary elections scheduled on Jan. 8 unless Musharraf ensures the ballot is free and fair. In their first meeting since returning to Pakistan, the two leaders formed an eight-member committee on Dec. 3 to draft a charter of demands. Bhutto’s homecoming procession in October was attacked by a suicide bomber, killing 136 people.
Sharif told about 200 of his supporters that he would continue his ``struggle for the restoration of the constitution and release of political prisoners and deposed judges.‘’
Musharraf said last week he will lift the state of emergency on Dec. 16 and called on all parties to take part in the ballot. The president suspended the constitution and sacked judges as the Supreme Court was about to rule on his eligibility for a second term in office.
List of Conditions
Members of the committee are meeting in Islamabad for a third day today to agree on a list of conditions Musharraf will be asked to meet if he wants to avoid a boycott of general elections.
The charter may include demands for an independent judiciary, a neutral caretaker government and a new election commission to oversee the ballot, Ahsan Iqbal, a member of the committee, said on the phone.
Pakistan’s government has said about 5,800 people arrested under the emergency decree have been freed and the remaining eight detainees will also be released. The release of political prisoners is a key demand by the opposition leaders.
Lawyers Aitzaz Ahsan and Ali Ahmed Kurd, who are contesting the ballot, and six other political activists will be freed within 72 hours, Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz Khan said yesterday, the official Associated Press of Pakistan reported.
Ahsan, the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, asked lawyers to run in elections if political parties decide to take part, according to a letter released by his office yesterday. He wants candidates contesting the election to commit under oath that they will fight for the restoration of judges if they win seats in Parliament.
Lifting Emergency
A new panel of Supreme Court judges, all appointed by the president, rejected the legal challenges to his re-election on Nov. 22. He stood down as army chief on Nov. 28 and took the presidential oath for a second five-year term a day later.
Pakistan’s main opposition alliance of religious parties, Mutahidda Majlis-e-Amal, is divided over whether to boycott the election and may split.
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, the biggest member of the six-party bloc, plans to contest the elections, while Jamaat-e-Islami, the second-strongest party, supports a boycott.
The alliance was the largest opposition group in the previous 342-member parliament and campaigned against Musharraf’s support for the U.S.-led war on terrorism.
Sharif was barred by the Election Commission on Dec. 3 from contesting the ballot from the eastern city of Lahore because of a criminal conviction following his ouster by Musharraf in a 1999 coup. Sharif, 57, said he won’t appeal against the decision because he doesn’t accept judges appointed under emergency rule.
Bhutto, 54, who leads the Pakistan Peoples Party, the main opposition group, said she has evidence the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League Quaid-e-Azam plans to rig voting.