Although Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf will end emergency rule today as promised, he will first amend the Constitution to protect his decisions from court review, the Pakistani attorney general said. Meanwhile, a UN envoy warned upcoming elections have already been rigged.
Malik Mohammed Qayyum said that government legal experts were finalizing the amendments and that the changes would be announced before the state of emergency is lifted. He provided no details.
"The president will lift the emergency to restore the Constitution and the fundamental rights," Qayyum said on Thursday.
Musharraf, who has acknowledged breaching constitutional protections, purged the judiciary, jailed thousands of opponents and silenced television news channels after he suspended the Constitution and declared emergency rule on Nov. 3.
The US-backed leader said he acted to prevent political chaos and to give authorities a freer hand against Islamic militants. Critics accuse him of making a power grab before the old Supreme Court could rule on the legality of his continued rule.
Meanwhile, a UN human rights envoy on Thursday told lawmakers in Washington not to send any delegation to monitor the upcoming election in Pakistan, which she said was already rigged by Musharraf.
"There is no point in monitoring the elections or watching the poll -- the rigging has already happened," said Hina Jilani, a prominent Pakistani attorney who is also the UN special envoy for human rights defenders.
She made the remarks after lawmakers at a Congressional hearing on the political crisis in Pakistan sought her opinion on the prospect of monitoring the Jan. 8 polls.
Jilani, cofounder of the Human Rights Commission in Pakistan, charged that Musharraf had already destroyed institutions such as the judiciary and the press.
Earlier, Democratic lawmakers Sheila Jackson Lee and Jim Moran had told Jilani they were considering the possibility of going to Pakistan as part of a congressional delegation to monitor the election process.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique