Pakistan's suspended chief justice was cheered by thousands of supporters as he traveled through eastern Pakistan yesterday ahead of another rally to demand the ouster of the country's embattled president.
About 3,000 lawyers, students and opposition party supporters lined the streets of Lahore, the capital of Punjab Province, as a cavalcade motored through the city led by chief justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry -- who was suspended on March 9 by Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf.
They chanted "Go, Musharraf Go," and "No to dictatorship," as Chaudhry drove by, headed toward Multan, a major city in Punjab, where he was expected to address a large rally later yesterday, his lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan said.
"We are fighting a legal battle through peaceful means to ensure the rule of law," he told reporters. "We are confident that we will get justice" and prove that the allegations against Chaudhry were false, he said.
Musharraf has been confronted with the worst political crisis of his presidency since he suspended Chaudhry, accusing him of abusing his office to get a prized job for his son.
Chaudhry denies the charges, and has been fighting a legal battle to be reinstated as chief justice. He has addressed several rallies across the country, drawing the support of tens of thousands of people.
Most of Pakistan's political parties that oppose Musharraf's military rule have also joined Chaudhry's rallies.
Musharraf says he acted against the judge after examining evidence, critics, however, accuse the general of trying to remove an independent-minded judge who could block his plan to ask lawmakers for a new five-year term this fall.
Although the Supreme Court has not indicated when it will make a ruling, political observers expect a verdict next month.
Musharraf has said he would accept any court decision, but it was not clear what Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz's response would be. Aziz recommended to the president that Chaudhry be suspended.
Aziz's term as premier expires later this year, as does the presidency of Musharraf who has said he would seek approval from lawmakers for another five-year term.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS