Musharraf’s Martial Plan: NYT Op-Ed by B. Bhutto

published Nov. 7th 2007 NYT 

NOV. 3, 2007, will be remembered as the blackest day in the history of Pakistan. Let us be perfectly clear: Pakistan is a military dictatorship. Last Saturday, Gen. Pervez Musharraf removed all pretense of a transition to democracy by conducting what was in effect yet another extraconstitutional coup.

4 Sharif supporters killed in shooting near Islamabad

ISLAMABAD, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) — At least four supporters of former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif were killed Thursday when unidentified gunmen fired at his party’s procession in the outskirts of Islamabad, local press reports said.

    Sharif, leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), was due to address election rallies in the eastern Pakistani city of Rawalpindi, some 30 kms south from Islamabad. (story)

Benazir Bhutto Assassinated

  This article is a combination of several articles.

NYT article here;  NYT article here; and an MSNBC News article here.

“The Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated near the capital, Islamabad, on Thursday. Witnesses said Ms. Bhutto, who was appearing at a political rally, was fired upon by a gunman at close range, quickly followed by a blast that the government said was caused by a suicide attacker.”

“Her arrival procession on Oct. 18 demonstrated the strength of her Pakistan Peoples Party, as did the quarter of a million loyal and enthusiastic supporters who went to Karachi to greet her.”

“She has also attacked conservatives in the government, including officials close to the president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, accusing them of aiding and abetting extremists, and supporting the bombers who attacked her.

“She has raised a warning against her old enemy, Pakistan’s foremost intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, and officials from the era of Gen. Muhammad Zia ul-Haq, who deposed and hanged her father, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, saying they are working against her.”

“Her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was Pakistan’s first popularly elected prime mister. He was executed in 1979 after being deposed in a military coup.”

“Ms. Bhutto’s assassination immediately raised questions about whether the parliamentary elections scheduled for January will now go ahead or be postponed. Mr. Musharraf was carrying out an emergency meeting with top government officials Thursday following Ms. Bhutto’s death, the aide to Mr. Musharraf said. He said no decision had been made on whether to delay the national elections.”

“Parties across the country were stepping up campaigning for the Jan. 8 elections after a Muslim holiday late last week and a holiday on Tuesday for the birthday of Pakistan’s founder and revered first leader, Mohammad Ali Jinnah.”

“The elections are for provincial parliaments and for a National Assembly from which a prime minister and a government will be drawn. It was not clear if they would still be held on schedule.”