Cartoon row threatens Musharraf

[ECH1969]

WASHINGTON -- A Washington Times cartoon has led to calls for President Pervez Musharraf's resignation in Pakistan, while the opposition has called for a nationwide protest on Friday.

"Gen. Musharraf's friendship with America has only brought shame and suffering to the people of Pakistan," said Liaquat Baloch, a spokesman for the opposition religious alliance, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal.

The six-party alliance has called for a countrywide protest on Friday and is also raising the issue in the Pakistani parliament

http://www.wpherald.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20050509-010709-7630r

[ECH1969]

1. Anyone have a pic

of the cartoon?

[DrDebug]

3. I think this is the one

http://www.teeth.com.pk/blog/2005/05/08/the-washington-times/

[Democat]

2. Now we know for sure who reads the Washington Times

Washingtim Times advertisers take note, your key demographic might be Pakistani religious extremists. :)

[Dhalgren]

4. Makes sense....

[dArKeR]

5. Why would Moonie Times publish this? Reminds me of the Bennett gambling

story being published when he came out and questioned the Iraq War. Everyone in politics/media knew he'd been losing millions gambling for a decade but the story comes as a "tool" from our Secret Government and American Media Whores. Knowing this they still had him on American Whore TV daily!

Musharraf's coup

Elections in Pakistan are now threatened

Special report: Pakistan

Leader
Monday June 25, 2001
The Guardian

In perpetrating a second coup against democracy, General Pervez Musharraf may have strengthened his own position but he has done Pakistan no favours. Gen Musharraf's decision to elevate himself from "chief executive", the title he assumed after the 1999 military takeover, to president, had been predicted. But that does not make it any more acceptable. And the timing was inept, coming as his foreign minister, Abdul Sattar, was in Washington trying to persuade a sceptical US administration to show more understanding of his country's problems.

Mr Sattar, who seems to have been badly caught out by the presidential putsch, conducted a similar exercise in London the previous week. Any progress he may have made has now been wrecked by the general's action, which brought sharp rebukes from the US State Department and the Foreign Office. Any chance that Washington would relax its sanctions has been blown, while the Commonwealth must decide whether to expel Pakistan when it meets later this year.

Just as when he overthrew Pakistan's elected prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, Gen Musharraf justifies his latest constitutional violation on grounds of personal duty and the national interest. Some progress has been made since 1999 in tackling corruption and restoring order to the country's indebted economy. Growth this year is estimated at 4% and exports and foreign currency reserves are up. But these advances have come at a high cost, with normal political life suspended, violence in Kashmir increasing again, and Pakistan isolated, especially over its links with Afghanistan's Taliban. Although Gen Musharraf promises to allow parliamentary elections by October next year, he is likely to retain his dominant, still illegitimate position, backed by an unelected security council. Public anger at Mr Sharif's clique has been replaced by a sense of powerlessness.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/pakistan/Story/0,2763,511917,00.html

+++++++++++++++

COUP IN PAKISTAN

JIM LEHRER: That military coup in Pakistan: We start with a report from Robert Moore of Independent Television News filed earlier today.

ROBERT MOORE: No pictures have emerged from Pakistan since news of the military coup first broke, but the latest reports suggest that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is under house arrest. There have been no official announcements from the civilian or from the military leadership tonight, and the television stations have been taken off the air.

SPOKESPERSON: The meeting dispelled the impression...

ROBERT MOORE: In mid-broadcast, a program was interrupted. And tonight, the confusion remains. But the key development was Prime Minister Sharif's attempt to sack this man, General Perveez Musharraf, the head of the army. He was away in Sri Lanka, but appears to have organized the coup, in what appears to have been a highly effective counterattack following his sacking. The crisis was triggered when the military was ordered to pull back Pakistani guerrillas who had crossed into Indian-controlled territory in Kashmir. For many in the army, this was a humiliating setback in the confrontation with India. Developments in Pakistan will be causing alarm throughout South Asia. The army has mobilized not just in the capital, Islamabad, but also in the second city of Karachi, and also in Lahore, Prime Minister Sharif's hometown and power base. Ever since the country followed India and conducted underground nuclear explosions, the stakes have increased enormously. The West now faces a military coup and possible chaos in the world's newest and most volatile nuclear state. In the last few minutes, news has flashed on Pakistani television saying that the Nawaz Sharif government is being dismissed, a sign the coup is now being consolidated.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/asia/july-dec99/pakistan_10-12.html

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A beleaguered Pakistan military regime faces mounting criticism

By Vilani Peiris
21 November 2000

Use this version to print

Last month marked one year since General Pervez Musharraf ousted the elected Pakistani government, arrested prime minister Nawaz Sharif and installed his own military regime. Accusing the previous government of corruption and ruining the economy, Musharraf promised to bring economic progress and political stability, eradicate poverty, build investor confidence and restore democracy as quickly as possible.

Twelve months later none of these promises have been fulfilled. The economy is still on a knife-edge and there is growing popular discontent with falling living standards and the lack of basic democratic rights. The regime is under fire not only from the political opposition but also from its supporters in the ruling elites including among the military top brass.

At the end of October, a meeting of key military commanders grilled Musharraf over the record of his administration. According to an Agence France-Presse report: “Political and diplomatic sources said that the commanders discussed plans to appoint a civilian prime minister to deflect public anger from the military, should the situation deteriorate further.”

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/nov2000/pak-n21.shtml


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The Strange Case of Mr. Hyde and Dr. Jekyll: General Pervez Musharraf

http://www.pakistan-facts.com/staticpages/index.php/20021121101525217


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In the late ’80s, Pakistan’s then head of state, Benazir Bhutto, told the first President George Bush, “You are creating a Frankenstein.” But the warnings never quite filtered down to the cops and G-men on the streets of New York.

http://bulletin.ninemsn.com.au/bulletin/EdDesk.nsf/All/3043C0B91612E654CA256AD2000148E5

Can anyone figure out why Bhutto has been crushed in Pakistan? Same as Estrada in PI.

[Tempest]

6. Baloch isn't completely correct

"Gen. Musharraf's friendship with America has only brought shame and suffering to the people of Pakistan," said Liaquat Baloch..."


It's also brought F-16 fighter jets and billions in other weapons to Pakistan.

[dicknbush]

7. I read that all the hoopla over this guy they cought was not justified

That the guy they caught had a name similar to the big shot they were looking for but that the guty they caught wasn't him.