Pakistani police mounted tight security around the parliament yesterday ahead of President General Pervez Musharraf's first address to a joint sitting of the national assembly and senate since his 1999 coup.
Armed police posted on all roads leading to the parliament frisked people and searched vehicles in what officials described was a precaution in view of recent acts of terrorism including two failed attempts on Musharraf's life.
The opposition Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) said it would protest during the special session against the unelected president, who sought to legitimize his rule through a New Year's Day parliamentary confidence vote which he won.
Musharraf, who held legislative elections in October 2002, has summoned both houses of parliament to convene at 11:00am. He has so far avoided addressing the parliament which was inaugurated in November 2002.
It was disrupted for most of the past year by rowdy opposition protests against Musharraf and his sweeping powers.
But he is facing the new year in a strengthened position thanks to a deal with Islamist opposition parties whereby his unelected presidency was validated by a confidence vote on Jan. 1.
The deal also ratified his power to dissolve parliament, and came in return for his pledge to quit his post as army chief by the end of this year.
The deal ended a year-long battle between opposition and ruling pro-Musharraf MPs which had paralyzed the parliament.
Information Minister Sheikh Rashid said the opposition was expected to make some noise during the proceedings, which he termed "light music."
"We hope decent parliamentary traditions will be established in the session during the president's address," Rashid said. "However the opposition may resort to some protest but it will be merely a sort of light music."
The parliamentary groups of ARD, which is made up of Pakistan Peoples Party and Pakistan Muslim League-N of exiled former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif respectively, had a meeting just before the session to finalize their strategy for in-house protest.
The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid and its allies also discussed their response while the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) Islamists coalition met separately.
MMA leader Liaqat Baluch said his party members would sit on the opposition benches but did not say wether they would join the planned ARD protest.
He however said the alliance was opposed to Musharraf's policy on Afghanistan and what he called the unfolding "U-turn" on the dispute over Kashmir with India.
Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee met on the sidelines of a regional summit in Islamabad earlier this month and decided to restart stalled talks on all disputes including Kashmir.
END OF AN ERA: The vote brings the curtain down on 20 years of socialist rule, which began in 2005 when Evo Morales, an indigenous coca farmer, was elected president A center-right senator and a right-wing former president are to advance to a run-off for Bolivia’s presidency after the first round of elections on Sunday, marking the end of two decades of leftist rule, preliminary official results showed. Bolivian Senator Rodrigo Paz was the surprise front-runner, with 32.15 percent of the vote cast in an election dominated by a deep economic crisis, results published by the electoral commission showed. He was followed by former Bolivian president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga in second with 26.87 percent, according to results based on 92 percent of votes cast. Millionaire businessman Samuel Doria Medina, who had been tipped
ELECTION DISTRACTION? When attention shifted away from the fight against the militants to politics, losses and setbacks in the battlefield increased, an analyst said Recent clashes in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Jubaland region are alarming experts, exposing cracks in the country’s federal system and creating an opening for militant group al-Shabaab to gain ground. Following years of conflict, Somalia is a loose federation of five semi-autonomous member states — Puntland, Jubaland, Galmudug, Hirshabelle and South West — that maintain often fractious relations with the central government in the capital, Mogadishu. However, ahead of elections next year, Somalia has sought to assert control over its member states, which security analysts said has created gaps for al-Shabaab infiltration. Last week, two Somalian soldiers were killed in clashes between pro-government forces and
Ten cheetah cubs held in captivity since birth and destined for international wildlife trade markets have been rescued in Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia. They were all in stable condition despite all of them having been undernourished and limping due to being tied in captivity for months, said Laurie Marker, founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, which is caring for the cubs. One eight-month-old cub was unable to walk after been tied up for six months, while a five-month-old was “very malnourished [a bag of bones], with sores all over her body and full of botfly maggots which are under the
BRUSHED OFF: An ambassador to Australia previously said that Beijing does not see a reason to apologize for its naval exercises and military maneuvers in international areas China set off alarm bells in New Zealand when it dispatched powerful warships on unprecedented missions in the South Pacific without explanation, military documents showed. Beijing has spent years expanding its reach in the southern Pacific Ocean, courting island nations with new hospitals, freshly paved roads and generous offers of climate aid. However, these diplomatic efforts have increasingly been accompanied by more overt displays of military power. Three Chinese warships sailed the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand in February, the first time such a task group had been sighted in those waters. “We have never seen vessels with this capability