South Asia News

Pakistan's Bhutto placed under house arrest (2nd Lead)

Nov 9, 2007, 6:51 GMT

Islamabad - Pakistan's ex-premier Benazir Bhutto was placed under house arrest in Islamabad Friday morning to prevent her from leading a rally in the garrison town of Rawalpindi against the state of emergency promulgated by President General Pervez Musharraf.

'We have orders to restrict Bhutto's movement till this evening,' a senior official told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on condition of anonymity.

The official said authorities decided to cordon off Bhutto's residence for her own safety.

Twice-deposed on graft and corruption charges, Bhutto staged a trumpeted comeback on October 18 after ending her eight-year self-imposed exile.

However, her homecoming rally last month in the southern city of Karachi was marred by the suicide bombing of her convoy that killed up to 145 people.

'We are fighting for people's rights and will continue to do so until democracy is restored,' a senior leader of Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP), Naheed Khan, said as she came out of the bungalow to talk to the media.

Condemning the move to restrict Bhutto's movements, Khan said: 'They are ruthless brutal people.'

According to her, Bhutto was in 'high spirits' and determined to proceed to the public park in Rawalpindi by midday to address the rally.

Strong contingents of riot police, backed by security personnel called in from other towns, blocked all roads leading out of Islamabad, as PPP activists started assembling on the outskirts of Rawalpindi to welcome their leader.

At least six party workers were arrested from outside Bhutto's residence and whisked away in a waiting police van.

President General Pervez Musharraf, who came to power in a bloodless coup in 1999, last Saturday declared a state of emergency, putting the constitution in abeyance, suspending fundamental rights and imposing media curbs.

Musharraf said mushrooming militancy and hostile judicial activism necessitated this extra-constitutional step.

'Pervez Musharraf is by now a veteran liar because he will not separate himself from what he calls his second skin, his uniform,' a senior PPP leader, Abida Hussain, told dpa outside Bhutto's residence.

Hussain ruled out any dialogue between Bhutto and Musharraf, emphasizing that: 'We are determined to resist the ugly military intervention.'

Musharraf, who says that he will step down as the army chief before swearing his oath as president for a second five-year term, asserted on Thursday that any resistance to his government would not be tolerated.

'All means will be used to control the protests,' Musharraf said.

© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur


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Big Q - United KingdomNov 9th, 2007 - 15:37:20

I am not quite sure when these, so called, Politicians of Pakistan say that, ‘they will restore democracy in Pakistan’. What do they mean when they say Democracy? Are they referring to the time when these Patriotic Leaders were filling their bank accounts with the money they made by charging 10% commission on every single deal which may happen in the country or stole from the budget, which by the way is the money thrown at us by US Government, like a bone thrown to a dog, to keep us domesticated. Perhaps they are referring to the time when Benazir was PM and the issue of Swiss bank account got into media, when Benazir was asked whether she’s got Swiss bank account or not? The reply was, “I may or may not have Swiss bank account”, very certain indeed. Even oxford education failed to teach her that, an answer to such a question is, “Yea, I do” or “No, I don’t” or diplomatically, “No Comments”. Later she admitted to have and account and said that see felt that her money was insecure in Pakistan, also her children were in Dubai because they were not safe in Pakistan. Come to think of it her own brother was shot while she was PM and there was nothing she could do about it. Would you trust such a person, who don’t have enough trust in the country to leave her children or their money (well, when I say their money I mean the stolen money), who claim to provide protection to the whole nation and couldn’t protect her own family, with future of the nation? I wouldn’t. You can say that I’ve got room to speak, seen as though I live in UK, well my friend, people like Benazir and Nawaz made the future of the country k so uncertain that hundred and thousands of people like me were forced to make alternate arrangements.

Nawaz wanted to change the nation into taxi drivers, but he missed the point that we were (still are) doing this quite brilliantly in London and New York already. The excellence of yellow cab scheme was that the cars were imported, instead of using what is available in the country. Or in Kargil, when our military almost cut the supply root to Occupied Kashmir, He chickened out. Let me clear it up at this point, that I have got nothing to do with any political party what so ever. I am on the side of Pakistan, not Pakistani Politicians, if something appears to be in favour of Pakistan, I am all for it., and wise versa, you get the point.
These party leaders like Benazir and Nawaz, they are not well wisher of Pakistan, they just want their office back, so that they you carry on from where they left before. They just want Pakistan to stay in the bottom of the pool, getting dollar bones thrown at us and chewing on it all by themselves. Pakistan does not need these people to pollute its environment and will be better off without them.
If it was up to me, I won’t have wasted my time doing house arrests and what not; I would have simply eliminated whoever that may come between Pakistan and its progress.

This emergency in Pakistan should keep these people at bay and that is why I agree with the idea, you can call it dictatorship or whatever it your choice but you can not deny the positive change that have came about in Musharaf’s rule in last few years, He might not be the ideal candidate for the job but he is better than anyone we had in the past and I respect that. Before this Benazir and Nawaz were playing ping pong in politics, taking turns in steeling money off the budget and robbing people off their basic rights.

Pakistan is a great nation, only if we were a sensible nation and understand our rolls and play them with all honesty, I do not see any reason that will stop us from succeeding as a Nation.

You might agree with my views or you might find them biased and extreme, but that’s you opinion and I respect that either way.

Kind Regards

Big Q
United Kingdom

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CynicNov 9th, 2007 - 20:26:04

Crazey Q.
Loonie.

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CynicNov 9th, 2007 - 20:31:27

But he's not quite as loonie as you might think...
try going over it a couple of times..
MMmmnn...?

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RightNov 9th, 2007 - 20:58:13

Big Q is absolutely right!! She only loves Pakistanis when US tells her to!

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'Jewel' TareenNov 29th, 2007 - 14:24:49

It was very 'refreshing' to read comments from 'Big Q, UK' -- I wish we had many, many more 'Big Qs' in and outside the country. But, alas, they are a rarity!

I myself am an old working journalist living in exile in an Asian country. I had to flee the 'administration' in Pakistan. I saw the mayhem during Benazir's father's times with my own eyes -- as a so-called 'vagabond journalist' [by the government of Benazir's father, Z A Bhutto] I was unfortunate enough to have seen MUCH MORE, deep inside than the naked eye could see. I still suffer from the brain damage I was subjected to -- because, as they said, 'I knew too much, and must lose my memory.'

Then, the 'Bibi,' who was quoted in an interview [she gave in London, when she was young] that 'marriage is an unnecessary burden on two humans.' NOW, she comes in wearing a veil [dopatta], pretending as a 'pious Muslim' woman. God help her!

Our great patron Uncle Sam has sent down Benazir -- and the 'dollar-dumping' Nawaz '[VERY]-Sharif' -- back to begin another era of looting and bloodletting -- in the name of 'Western democracy' [remember the vote-counting in Florida, and Jeb Bush? -- AND the bribery scandals involving Maggie's family and many other 'democratic parliamentarians' in UK]!!!

We, alas, have to once again gasp under the 'great commemorative stone of democracy!'

When will people be able to breath 'fresh air' -- minus the suffocating smell of .......?
=================================================
[My E-mail, for YOUR OWN use only. Please do not publish it with my comments. Thank you]:

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qtbyhz uemwjbhApr 23rd, 2008 - 08:46:11

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