Pakistan Views

The chairman of Pakistan ‘Tahrik-e-Insaf’, Imran Khan on Saturday said that victors of February 18 elections would betray the nation if they violate their commitment to restore the deposed judges. Talking to the newsmen, Imran urged the winning parties to launch joint efforts to revive democracy and foil the ‘conspiracies being hatched by the presidency against the judiciary’. He advised Pervez Musharraf to leave the country for good as it would be better for him. He said that the whole nation and the entire lawyers’ community will keep an eye on the new parliament. He categorically stated that he would not contest the bye-election in the presence of Pervez Musharraf and the current judiciary. He said that no one accepts the present judiciary except the tyrant rulers and those judges who were sworn-in under the PCO. He said that the incumbent chief justice of Pakistan is still Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry who refused to bow down before the dictator and still committed with his noble cause.He blamed the United States for plotting conspiracy for creating a rift among the heavyweight political parties including PML-N, PPP and their allied parties. “The time is ripe for the victorious political parties to shun themselves from the US influence and represent the sentiments of 160 million people of Pakistan”, he noted. He warned the new parliament that if the sacked judges will not be reinstated within thirty days, the APDM along with civil society and the people from different segments of society would launch a strong movement across the country.”The movement will sweep away every obstacle”, he said. He termed Pervez Musharraf as a root-cause of all problems being faced by the masses and also underlined the need of an early change in the interior and foreign policies of the country and end of US war on terror in the Pakistan soil in order to uproot rising wave of terrorism and extremism.

Demonstrators staged noisy protests on Monday as President Pervez Musharraf held talks with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, amid criticism over human rights and concern over elections.
Some 400 anti-Musharraf protestors including opposition leader Imran Khan and his ex-wife Jemima booed and waved their fists as the president arrived for the Downing Street talks, according to an AFP correspondent.
Musharraf and his wife Sehba posed on the steps of Number 10 with Brown and his wife Sarah before heading in for the talks, thought likely to focus on upcoming February 18 polls and cooperation in fighting extremism and terrorism.
But the British leg has been dogged by daily protests, and strong doubts at Musharraf’s assertion that the elections would be “free, fair, transparent and peaceful”.
“You cant have one rule for one dictator and one rule for another. The elections coming up are going to be rigged. There is no democracy in Pakistan,” Jemima Khan told AFP shortly before presenting a petition at Downing Street.
In a speech on Pakistan’s role in south Asia to the Royal United Services Institute military think-tank in London on Friday, Musharraf dismissed claims the elections would be rigged.
“I would ask anyone to give me how (the polls) can be rigged, and if anyone gives me any suggestion, I would be too glad to pass it on to the chief election commissioner for implementation,” he said.
But he warned Western governments of judging Pakistan by their own standards, while professing his backing for human rights, civil liberties and freedom of speech
“The only thing we would like is that this freedom should be within bounds and not lead to violence and destruction and anarchy,” he added.
On Monday Musharraf was also expected to brief Brown on the latest developments in the probe into the martyrdom of Benazir Bhutto.
Britain was among leading countries in the decision to suspend Pakistan from the Commonwealth over Musharraf’s declaration of a state of emergency. It was unclear if that issue would be discussed Monday.
The anti-Musharraf protestors, who were kept at bay by barricades and a significant police presence on Whitehall, held placards including one reading “UN-led investigation demanded by the people of Pakistan”.
Across the road some 30 pro-Musharraf demonstrators gathered, waving Pakistani flags and chanting “Pervez Musharraf”. “We love Pakistan” read one placard, while others held up pictures of Musharraf and small British flags.
Protestors waited outside Downing Street to renew their chanting as Musharraf left after the talks.
Jemima Khan, who now lives back in Britain, said the reunion with her former husband — head of Pakistan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf party was coincidential.
“It just happened that coincidentally he was here … and I thought it would be a really good boost if he could come. It just shows how high emotions are running,” she told reporters.

 Chief, Tehreek-i-Insaf, Imran Khan has said that the political parties are being used under the same doctrine of necessity for which the judiciary was used in the past.

Addressing a press conference after the meeting of Tehreek-i-Insaf central executive body, Imran Khan said the political parties intending to participate in the coming elections will come running back to APDM on January 9 raising hues and cries about rigging.

Nawaz Sharif is the only leader supporting the restoration of judiciary, however, he should have given it a second thought before deciding to for election, he said.

He appealed to the people to observe January 10 as a black day and wave black flags in the air.

Chief TI said his party has decided to launch a political campaign with a name of Just Students Federation.

ISLAMABAD  - Pakistani authorities have released hunger-striking former cricket star Imran Khan from jail just few Minutes Ago, senior government officials told Agence France-Presse.

Imran Khan was arrested on Nov 14. He Was Arrested at a students rally, he had said he was trying to start a student movement against emergency rule. But The Jamiet At the Univeristy Campus called up the police and he was arrested after that.

Imran Khan also began a hunger strike on Monday.

‘All political prisoners in Punjab province, including Imran Khan, are being released in Punjab in the next few hours,’ a top provincial government official said.

A senior federal government official confirmed the decision to release Imran Khan.