NY Times News Service and AFP, ISLAMABAD AND LAHORE, PAKISTAN
Former Pakistani chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who was removed last year when Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf imposed a state of emergency, has spoken out despite being isolated.
A letter from Chaudhry to Western officials was circulated on Wednesday. It lambasted the president for quashing Pakistan's independent judiciary and illegally detaining him and his family and noted that the Supreme Court had not had a chance to rule on whether it was legal for Musharraf to run for re-election in December.
It was Chaudhry's second public statement since the start of emergency rule on Nov. 3, when he was confined to his home. On Nov. 6, he made a telephone address to opposition lawyers in Islamabad, urging the nation to rise for the restoration of the Constitution. Emergency rule was lifted on Dec. 15.
The Pakistani government insists that Chaudhry is not under house arrest, but in reality public access to his residence is prohibited and visitors are not allowed.
An aide, Athar Minullah, said the letter was smuggled out by Chaudhry's 16-year-old daughter.
The letter, in response to Musharraf's recent visit to European capitals, was addressed to the president of the European Parliament, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the head of the World Economic Forum. During his trip, Musharraf gave Western leaders a damning profile of Chaudhry, Minullah said.
"I have found it necessary to write to you, and others," Chaudhry said in the letter, "because during his recent visits to Brussels, Paris, Davos and London, General Musharraf has slandered me, and my colleagues, with impunity in press conferences and other addresses and meetings."
Throughout the letter, Chaudhry referred to the president as "General Musharraf," underlining the constitutional questions surrounding his leadership.
Musharraf's moves against Chaudhry -- including a suspension from the Supreme Court in March -- have made Musharraf deeply unpopular in the country.
In a show of support for Chaudhry, thousands of lawyers yesterday burned an effigy of Musharraf as part of nationwide protests to press for his release, witnesses said.
Around 3,000 attorneys in black suits chanted "Death to Musharraf" and "Death to army generals" at a rally in Lahore, during which they also burned a dummy representing Musharraf.
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