Pakistan's new prime minister yesterday ordered the release of judges detained by President Pervez Musharraf, triggering a showdown with Musharraf just minutes after being elected.
Yousuf Raza Gilani, a key aide to assassinated opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, immediately promised to free the judges that Musharraf ordered held last November amid fears they might challenge his grip on power.
Legislators cheered as the 55-year-old Gilani, who spent five years in prison under Musharraf's regime, was elected overwhelmingly by the lower house of parliament -- where an anti-Musharraf coalition now holds a majority.
"Today, democracy has been restored thanks to the great sacrifice of Benazir Bhutto," Gilani, wearing a dark suit and tie, said in his first speech to parliament.
"I invite all political forces to join us because the country is facing such a crisis that a single man cannot save it," Gilani said to chants of "Go Musharraf, Go!" and "Long Live Bhutto!"
He quickly established that he was ready to take on the president, who is due to swear him into office today. Gilani said the judges detained and turfed out of office by Musharraf would go free.
Musharraf deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and dozens of other judges under a state of emergency in November, when it appeared the Supreme Court might overturn his October re-election as president.
"I order all the detained judges to be released immediately," Gilani said, referring to Chaudhry and several other judges who remain under house arrest after more than four months.
Police with forklift trucks began removing barbed wire and concrete barricades outside the Islamabad neighborhood where the judges were being held.
An aide to Chaudhry said he was grateful to Gilani and would leave his house today. The judge's son appeared on the balcony of the house where he too has been held since November.
Gilani was in prison for half a decade on corruption charges, which he said were cooked up by the regime to discredit him. His spell in prison won him respect within the ranks of Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP).
He got 264 votes in the 342-seat chamber, while the pro-Musharraf candidate secured 42 votes. There were several abstentions.
China’s military news agency yesterday warned that Japanese militarism is infiltrating society through series such as Pokemon and Detective Conan, after recent controversies involving events at sensitive sites. In recent days, anime conventions throughout China have reportedly banned participants from dressing as characters from Pokemon or Detective Conan and prohibited sales of related products. China Military Online yesterday posted an article titled “Their schemes — beware the infiltration of Japanese militarism in culture and sports.” The article referenced recent controversies around the popular anime series Pokemon, Detective Conan and My Hero Academia, saying that “the evil influence of Japanese militarism lives on in
ANTI-SEMITISM: Some newsletters promote hateful ideas such as white supremacy and Holocaust denial, with one describing Adolf Hitler as ‘one of the greatest men of all time’ The global publishing platform Substack is generating revenue from newsletters that promote virulent Nazi ideology, white supremacy and anti-Semitism, a Guardian investigation has found. The platform, which says it has about 50 million users worldwide, allows members of the public to self-publish articles and charge for premium content. Substack takes about 10 percent of the revenue the newsletters make. About 5 million people pay for access to newsletters on its platform. Among them are newsletters that openly promote racist ideology. One, called NatSocToday, which has 2,800 subscribers, charges US$80 for an annual subscription, although most of its posts are available
Venezuelan Nobel peace laureate Maria Corina Machado yesterday said that armed men “kidnapped” a close ally shortly after his release by authorities, following former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro’s capture. The country’s Public Prosecutor’s Office confirmed later yesterday that former National Assembly vice president Juan Pablo Guanipa, 61, was again taken into custody and was to be put under house arrest, arguing that he violated the conditions of his release. Guanipa would be placed under house arrest “in order to safeguard the criminal process,” the office said in a statement. The conditions of Guanipa’s release have yet to be made public. Machado claimed that
SHIFTING BLAME: Near the end of the one-minute-long video, the Obamas were shown with their faces on the bodies of monkeys for about one second US President Donald Trump on Friday refused to apologize for a video posted on his social media account depicting former US president Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, as monkeys, although he said he condemned the post as the White House shifted the blame to staff. The video shared on Trump’s Truth Social account late on Thursday night sparked censure across the US political spectrum, with the White House initially rejecting “fake outrage” only to then blame the post on an error by a staff member. “I didn’t make a mistake,” Trump said on Air Force One late on
RSS