Dear Windy, Pakistan is a country of 160 Million People. It has been ruled undemocratically from the very beginning because the rulers always served the interests of US instead of the people of Pakistan and the rulers sought their legality from US . The real leadership of the people of Pakistan have always been tortured, disgraced and even killed by the Rulers. Pakistan Army is superior to any Law, Constitution and Institution in the Country. All the resources are in the hands of Army i.e. Land, Industries, Banks, Construction Work, Housing Schemes etc. The present Political Leaders except Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan have concluded that if they have to remain in power they have to accept the supremacy of Army, that is why Benaizr Bhutto surrendered to Army and accepted all the terms and conditions of Army.Pakistan Judiciary had got  a new birth of being independent and  it was challenging the human and Fundamental Rights violations by Army agencies. The good example is of Missing people. Musharraf have charged the Judiciary of intervening in the matters of agencies when they were kidnapping and killing the people without any legal process. General Musharraf is showing to the world that he took the action against the Judiciary because it was releasing the terrorists but the fact is that the main supporter of Terrorists is Pakistan Army itself and it has proved last day when it released 28 Terrorists sentenced by Courts, for releasing 240 Army Personals.The Human Rights activists are expressing their unrest on the present situation in Pakistan and they have rejected the orders and actions of General Musharraf , as a result the office of Pakistan Human Rights Commission has been sealed and 60 Human Rights Activists have been detained. I request all the Human Rights activists to write letters to their Governments and condemn the present situation of Pakistan and demand to reinstate the judges, Judiciary and Constitution the Country.Sincerely, Gulalai Ismail Aware Girls Pakistan  

Just a little over a week ago, there was a very interesting article in the Boston Globe, “A New Rallying Cry: Why the concept of justice - not freedom, not democracy - is becoming a potent tool for political reform in the Muslim world” http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2007/10/28/a_new_rallying_cry/?page=3

The article, written by Shahan Mufti, stated that Pakistanis are using the Urdu word “zulm” –

“a word that signifies severe cruelty or injustice. The Arabic root implies doing wrong, and is used in the Koran as the most basic reference to sin. Zalimeen are sinners who commit zulm… The antithesis of zulm is adl, the Koranic word for justice, and insaf, the Persian equivalent. The demand for adl-o-insaf, for justice, has emerged as a compelling rallying call in Pakistan.”

Given the recent, tragic events taking place in Pakistan, certainly justice has been one of the first casualties with hundreds of people already arrested and detained. It is perhaps especially interesting to put President Pervez Musharraf’s action of calling an emergency to suspend the Constitution in light of Pakistan’s highest level of the judicial system – the supreme court’s impending ruling on the very legality of his election. Although an eight-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar M Chaudhury had immediately declared the emergency unconstitutional, the Chief Justice Choudhury was himself put under house arrest. Who will be presiding over the system of justice, standing for all those arrested, and ensuring a just process, if the Chief Justice of the land is himself under arrest?

When I awoke this morning, the first story I heard on my radio reported that the Chief Justice of Choudhury used his mobile phone to alert and encourage lawyers to continue to protest the unconstitutionality of the imposed emergency rule.

I encourage everyone to participate in our upcoming tactical discussion “Using Mobile Phones for Action” (November 28 to December 4) to contribute your experiences and ideas – perhaps these could inspire new ideas for action in situations like Pakistan.

Nancy Pearson, New Tactics Program Manager

It seems to me that the situation in Pakistan is just another example of how this US administration has turned a blind eye to a country's undemocratic politics in return for support on the fight against terrorism. When Musharraf came to power via a military coup, he promised that there would be a transition back to civilian rule by the end of 2004................During the Cold War, the US supported all sorts of undemocratic regimes as long as they were anti-Soviet. Now the 'war' against terrorism has replaced the Cold War in terms of dictating US policy. How ironic that the US should invade Iraq to impose democracy while supporting Musharraf - Pakistan of course already HAS nuclear capacity.

The current repression of opposition and press has provoked the lawyers into taking the lead in anti-Musharraf demonstrations.  This is a positive sign, just as the monks are taking the lead in Burma this is an influential group and the international media are paying attention. Apparently the Bush administration asked Musharraf not to declare a state of emergency and was ignored - so much for influencing your friends.

The use of cell phones to mobilize opposition is an interesting tactic that has been increasingly recognized as an effective new tactic, often in monitoring elections. The National Democratic Institute for Interantionanl Affairs (www.ndi.org) was recently honored, along with a number of other organizations for training domestic election monitors in Eastern Europe to transmit the results of parallel vote counts via cell phone rather than manually. This has proved effective in speedily confirming or briniging into question official vote counts.  The lawyers in Pakistan are a sophisticated opposition to the Musharraf regime. I suspect that cell phone service in Myanmar is less effective but it  would be great if we could provide the monks with that capacity too.  It is time that military rule in Asia followed the path of Latin America and handed over power to civilian control. With this type of unrest in both Myanmar and Pakistan it may be the beginning of that trend. 

 The situation of Pakistan is deteriorating day be day. The present action of Chief of Army Staff is even against himself as President and it shows his no confidence on his selected Government and his own rule. The real story is that Pakistan Army has created a Drama of Terrorism in the world to grab dollars from USA and it has been proved by Pakistan Army that they are making fool of Pentagon the most stupid Intelligence Institution of the World, All the TALIBAN and Islamic Terrorism has been created by Pakistan Army itself and it is still supporting these forces which is by two examples. Musharraf took the stand that he imposed emergency and termination the Fundamental Rights and Constitution of Pakistan because of the threat of Terrorism. But just on the second day of Emergency General Musharraf Army released 28 Terrorists  for releasing its 240 Army  Personals in Wazeristan. Yesterday Pakistan Army vacated posts for TALIBAN in Swat and all the area has been handed over to these Religious Fundamentalists, Fanatics and Terrorists. Pakistan Army supplies Arms to these Terrorists by surrendering their personals to them and then reaching an agreement with for releasing the terrorists and the army personals. USA is focusing on one man General Mushrraf to combat terrorism and he is busy in strengthening himself by getting the dollars and power in Pakistan. He was feeling threat from the emerging Independent Judiciary in Pakistan therefore he imposed emergency just to get rid of Independent judges who were becoming free and men of consciousness.The only purpose of the actions of General Musharrf was to curb the independence of Judiciary. As far as the use of mobile phones is concerned, the system of mobile phone is jammed by Pakistan Army when needed.  Mobiles phones are not working in many areas of conflict just like Swat etc. But it is being used to some extent. For Example list night the deposed Chief Justice used it for giving a message to the nation and the word and gave answers about the allegations of General Musharraf.

Gulalai Ismail

Aware Girls

Pakistan

I agree Gulalai’s point of view that the Pakistan Army and its Chief General Musharraf are serving the interests of Mr. Bush and Mr. Bush is supporting General Musharraf and giving USA tax payers money for his personal benefit.  Pakistan Army is promoting Terrorism allover the world and Pakistan has become a Heaven for Islamic Terrorists. Pakistan Army is the biggest sponsor of the Islamic Fundamentalism and Terrorism in the world. It is making fool of Pentagon, but it is irony that General Musharraf and Pakistan Army are making lame excuses of curbing terrorism and justifying his emergency.  It is fact tat the hold and power of Terrorists and Islamic Fundamentalists grew rapidly in a few days after imposing Emergency in Pakistan.General Musharraf imposed emergency in Pakistan on 3 November 2007, promulgated the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO) and suspended the Constitution, placing the country under one-man rule.  Fifty-five out of 97 judges of the Supreme Court and the four High Courts refused to take the oath of allegiance under the PCO.  Thousands of lawyers were brutally beaten and arrested all over the country when they were protesting against the new PCO. The judges who refused to accept the illegal actions of General Musharraf were came under house arrests.  Hundreds of human rights activists, including Ms. Asma Jahangir United Nations Special Rapporteur on Religious Freedom were arrested after the proclamation of state of emergency. General Musharaff issued orders which introduced tough changes barring media persons from criticizing the head of the state, military and the newly inducted puppet Judiciary, and private television news channels were put off air.  Secretary General UNO and international Community and International Federation of Journalists, as well as the opposition parties in Pakistan e.g. Pakistan Peoples Party, Pakistan Muslim League, Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf and Awami National Party, have condemned the imposition of emergency rule in Pakistan and expressed their anger over the arbitrary detention of political leaders, senior Judges, lawyers and human rights activists. The only purpose of the actions of General Musharrf was to curb the independence of Judiciary. I hereby request all the peace lovers to write letters to their Governments and ask for condemning the actions of  General Musharraf  and demanding for : i.                     Reinstating the Constitution

ii.                    Reinstating the sacked Judges

iii.                  Release the political prisoners , human rights activists and lawyers 

iv.                   Handing over Government to Civilian

v.                    Curbing Fanaticism and Terrorism by Stopping Army support to Terrorists 

Prof. M.Ismail

RISE - Pakistan

 Today political and Human Rights activists were protesting for restoration of Constitution and Judiciary in Peshawar the capital of North West Frontier Province of Pakistan. Government had deplyed police and was not allowing the protesters to enter the place announced for a protest rally. The activists and leaders of the groups used mobile phones for giving messages to their fellows to come and gather on different places. By doing this they gave a very tough time to Police and were able to have protests rallies in Peshawar.

 Prof. M.Ismail

RISE - Pakistan

hello all. i'm very curious to know more about how activists in pakistan are using mobile phones. coincidentally, i just posted to my blog about "twitter," a newer social networking tool that allows groups of people to efficiently communicate via SMS (text messaging). i wonder if anyone is using it in pakistan...

http://www.newtactics.org/en/blog/mholterhaus/social-media-and-activism-organizing-twitter

Thank you so much for all the responses to my questions about Pakistan. This discussion has done exactly what I had hoped it would do: given me a new perspective on the situation on the ground in Pakistan without any sort of filter from the US or other biased sources.

I'm suprised and dissappointed to hear all of these  revelations about Pakistan. It seems that anytime a leader is given backing and power by the U.S. they always abuse it with little resistance from the outside world.

It's interesting how people in power seem to try to bolster their grip on that power by labeling anyone who doesn't agree with them a "terrorist." As Gulalai pointed out, the real terrorists appear to be within the Pakistan Army, and Musharaff's smokescreen of legitamacy is wearing thin.

I will certainly write to the U.S. government and ask for the things that you've mentioned in your earlier post Gulalai, and encourage my friends to do the same. Also, I'd like to remind everyone that the topic of mobile phones as a tool for human rights is coming up as a tactical discussion starting November 28th. Please participate and share these perspectives and innovative uses with the new tactics community. The discussion will allow people to share ideas and uses, and improve upon their current uses for mobile phones.

Any writers from within Pakistan, thank you for your perspectives and knowledge, and I hope you stay safe during this time. If there are any other actions that may be useful don't hesitate to share them with us: I would like to help, and this exact thing is what New Tactics is intended for.

Wendy 

I request to international community to intervene in Pakistan and pressurize Mr. Musharaf to leave and hand over the government to National body which should be comprise of impartial member of the political parties.

Further I request to help us in our efforts in reinstatement of Judiciary because it is indispensable for Democracy and Social Justice in this Country.

This was the first time ever we felt hope for betterment in our country from some demonstrative achievments of Chief Justice through his steps in favour of hopeless comunities.

In the last I condemn the ellegal entity of the Musharaf and would like to warn him that now this nation has awaken up and there is no a single chance to carry on his illegalities.