CNN

It is encouraging that President Bush and Secretary Rice have strongly urged upon General Musharraf to shed uniform, lift the State of Emergency and hold General Elections at the earliest to restore democracy in the country.

The so-called state of emergency declared by General Musharraf in his capacity as Army Chief with suspension of the Constitution, is in reality is Martial Law.

The irony is that through this proclamation the third main pillar of the system, viz. Judiciary, has been eliminated for all practically purposes.

Majority of Judges of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and High Courts of Provinces, who did not accept the PCO, have been removed and put under house arrest along with their families. Thousands of lawyers are in jail and there is total boycott of courts, as a result no court is functional in the country.

No democracy can work and no society can flourish without a strong and independent Judiciary.

I strongly urge upon CNN, international media and most importantly, President Bush, Secretary Rice to exert their influence and ask General Musharraf to restore sanctity of the Supreme Court of Pakistan to guarantee Independent Judiciary, which is the only mechanism which can protect fundamental human rights and ensure free and fair elections in the country.

Without an Independent Judiciary, the whole election process (even if the State of Emergency is lifted) will be a sham and will not be beneficial to the democratic process in any way.

The ultimate result will be more extremism and detrimental to the already damaged moderate thinking.

If the US continues its support of Musharraf the obvious out come is a sunni Iran like state. If you suppress the moderates like he has done to preserve himself in power and essentially destroyed the rule of law then the only conclusion will be radical mullas will take over.
the US has never been sincere in promoting democracy in Pakistan.It supported Ayub, Yahya, Zia ul Haq, and now this despot Musharraf.

Mush has been taking the world for ride, he has not delivered anything in the war on Terror, no improvement in Afganistan.He and his general are just gobbling up the millions in the name of war on terror.

Why is it that democracy is good only for the US and not for the muslim countries. US does everything to promote its cronies and then after individuals die there left holding the short end of the stick. Why not build democracy.

Remember the Shah of Iran

We will be grateful if all Pakistanis who read this comment and all the other people who want to show solidarity with people of Pakistan could gather to hold a peaceful demonstration in front of Pakistan High Commision in London ''For Restoration of True Democracy and Judiciary ''.We want to show solidarity with the Judiciary of Pakistan and protest against the dissolution of Judiciary and stopping independent TV channels in Pakistan.

Date :13 th november,2007 tuesday
Time : 2 pm

Place: Pakistan High Comission ,London.

Arranged by : UK Doctors forum for Restoration of Democracy.
(permission granted and facilitated by London Metropoliton Police)

Important note : We do not have a political background,this demonstration is to show concerns of the civil society of Pakistan on Pakistan's situation.

Musharraf's illegitemacy and foul play has become so obvious that it has become difficult to point out.
the man claims to be "the moderate terrorist fighter" while on the contrary he is a deterrent bully who has bombed my entire country to the ground and thinks the only way he can tackle his agitated nation is by using more brute force...but against who?????
his own people???
we arent terrorists,we are students,lawyers,journalists and human activists...we believe in justice,peace and fair play...
why are we denied our rights to air our opinions and points of view..
why are we denied our right to justice..we deserve our courts to be free and impartial..we dont want a judiciary that consists of sell outs and hypocrits...
why is the west ok with the fact that this "moderate" has removed the CHIEF JUSTICE of Pakistan TWICE,just because he stood up to an illegitemate dictator and questioned his actions.
why is the journalist community ok with the fact that all private,un biased news channels have been banned in our country..and more assaults are being made on the journalists everyday...it was during his era of "freedom of expression" that we witnessed the highest number of journalist casualty than in any other establishment.
why is the civil society ok with the fact the we the common people have been denied our right to democracy for nearly a decade and are forcefed another martial rule just because it suits the politicians??
is justice only meant for the strong and not the weak?


Lahore,Pakistan.

Musharraf's imposition of emergency neither is nor ever was about the crisis situation caused by the so called terrorists in Pakistan. It was always about getting rid of the judiciary and that he did, because Supreme Court was about to give a verdict against the eligibility of General as a President. So far in this emergency that was declared due to terrorists, all the lawyers and judges, and political workers of opposition parties have been man handled and arrested and warrants issued. The entire media except for state owned PTV has been blocked. Chief Justice Iftikhar has been kicked out again, and some new judges have been sworned in, obviously those who'll say YES SIR to the General. All this drama just to appoint a General's own judicial system, so that now everything he says becomes legal through court. What a shameless plan.

Shame on those nations and individuals who are proponents of freedom and democracy in this world of today and still carry on to support and fund such a shameless man.

everyone in Pakistan and oustide should know that most of the Pakistanis specially the student community does not support Musharrf at all, we want him out as soon as possible so that we can decide our future ourselves, we do not want to be influenced by any external forces because this is our country and we will run it the way we want through democracy, we do not need a military man from the barracks to tell us about freedom and democracy because believe me he cant....So we, the Pakistanis need to stand up for our rights, for our voices and for our future,we need to condemn martial law, we want an education system which is not elitist, we need an economic system which does not make the poor poorer and the rich richer, we want justice and we do not need a general to remind us everyday that we "are not ready for democracy"!!!

I think USA is not sincere in promoting democracy in Pakistan otherwise she will not promote Bhutto after Musharaf. Bhutto has so many corruption charges on herself and her husband and has been convicted by a swiss court. If USA was sincere she should promote democracy and not someone special or someone she likes. Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan are both liberal and they have no corruption charges on their person. So if USA had to side with someone the she should side with spoliticians who are not corrupt and should be accpetable both for the world and for Pakistani people.
By the way there is a new video by Imran Khan on his party's website. It would be nice if you can show one of his videos named address to the world on your channel so that world would know what we the majority of Pakistani civil society wants. Pakistan Tehrek-e-Insaaf website is http://www.moveforjustice.org/.
Baseer

Pakistan is the only country with a failed status and nuclear arsenal. The worlds worst fears today is the control of NUKE's in Pakistan. It is best for world to have Parvez as president. While we all can hope for Democracy, it is not going to have any control in Pakistan. Democracy will only see an uncontrolled rise in radical elements and destabilisation of the social structure. Last option is to step-in and secure the NUKE's (with or without the consent of Pakistan)for the world peace and let democracy return in Pakistan.

We are being led by the worst president in American history. Can we expect him to do the right thing, even if he knew what that was? He will do what the multinational corporations tell him to do.

We will stay the course in Pakistan. Keep supporting the dictator Musharraf, just like we did the Shah of Iran.

It's not about America doing the right thing anymore.

Hi!
it's been one man show on mushrruf's part and he's treating the whole country as his own property but it's not mushrruf who's done such idiotic thing to pakistan benazir, nawazsharif and all the rest have put pakistan in such crisis one way or the otherin their reign. all the previous Govts have been ousted on allegations of corruptions i don't know who should we trust. pakistan has never ever had a true democratic leader in its entire history. because elections have always been manupulated and rigged by intelligence agencies and this is a known & much talked about fact. people's participation in election have never been more than 40% or so. so for God sake any elected Govt is not an entirly demoratic Govt because over half of the population never cast their vote for they've been so fed up of election and corrupt govts. and as for the US who considers itself the biggest supporter of democracy in the world is backing a military dictator in Pakistan. US loves everything to run in a demoratic fashion in her own country but is a wants an Army rule in pakistan and itself has occupied Afganistan, iraq and has launched military strikes in many parts of the World.

A democracy only works as long as the people within the democracy are free to chose and free to gather and to discuss issues that effect the entire collective group. We have a democracy in the United States similar to Pakistan and unfortunately we also have corrupt and self serving politicians that care little if anything about the people they are suppose to serve and only care about their own future and prosperity. The people of America have no desire to rule or dictate to the people in Pakistan or to have outside influence and any that occurs is purely the Governments doing. We are miles apart but what occurs in Pakistan effects us in the United States. Part of the problems in America come from the drug trade out of Pakistan and Afghanistan who are the largest producers of opium on this planet. Apparently Opium is like currency in Pakistan and Afghanistan and who ever controls the Opium controls the government. Opium and nuclear weapons are a very dangerous combination.