Pakistan - an ongoing emergency
Pakistani politics is in crisis
Also In The News
|
The Football Association (FA) has decided not take any action against  |
Friday, 25, Jan 2008 06:32
Pervez Musharraf may have called off Pakistan's state of emergency, but the country remains in crisis following the assassination of opposition figurehead Benazir Bhutto.
After a year of turmoil attention focused on whether Mr Musharraf or Ms Bhutto would be in the ascendancy in 2008. Her unexpected death and subsequent delayed elections mean instability is set to continue for some time. inthenews.co.uk looks at recent events in troubled Pakistan.
Re-elected
Three issues dominated the approach to parliamentary elections in autumn last year: whether President Musharraf should be allowed to continue as head of the army; whether he should be allowed to continue at all; and what cost Pakistan is paying for the current turbulence.
All seemed to be going well on the middle point. Despite the apparent collapse of power-sharing talks with opposition figurehead and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, lawmakers comfortably voted President Musharraf into power on October 6th. Then a problem emerged: it became clear that the supreme court might uphold petitions declaring his candidacy unlawful.
The answer was simple. After declaring the emergency on November 5th at the beginning of November, which saw the suspension of civil liberties and Pakistan's constitution, President Musharraf sacked unsympathetic judges and replaced them with others. The supreme court dismissed all but one of the petitions on November 19th.
Nov 19th: Musharraf cleared for election
A civilian president?
His army uniform, however, remained deeply in doubt. President Musharraf had pledged as early as September 18th to step down as army chief for his second term, but the announcement was thrown into doubt by the supreme court permitting him his uniform back ten days later.
Any previous plans seemed to go up in smoke with the state of emergency announcement, but the threat of international sanctions appeared to rush matters. Elections initially scheduled for February were put forward to January and, despite seeing Pakistan suspended from the Commonwealth, Mr Musharraf finally surrendered his army role on November 28th. The state of emergency was formally lifted on December 15th.
Dec 15th: Musharraf ends emergency rule
Violence and reprisals
The cost of the political turmoil showed itself in further violence throughout the autumn and winter. Over 250 fighters were killed in intense clashes between Islamic militants and army forces in the north-western border region in early October. More than 130 people died from two car bombs as Ms Bhutto arrived from exile on October 18th. And at least 50 were killed when a suicide bomber attacked a mosque in the north-west of the country on December 21st.
Dec 21st: 50 dead in Pakistan blasts
Assassination
All these incidents had terrible significance politically, but none had the impact of the successful attempt on Ms Bhutto's life on December 27th.
Click here for full story
Doubts were expressed about the precise cause of death, leading Mr Musharraf to accept British offers sending investigators to probe the killing.
Ms Bhutto's Pakistan People's party chose her son, 19-year-old Oxford University student Bilawal, as her successor and opted to continue contesting the impending January 8th elections.
But further violence in the wake of the assassination, which resulted in over 50 deaths during the first week alone, forced the Pakistani election commission to delay the polls until February 18th.
Whether the delayed election will be "clean and transparent in every respect", as the election commission has pledged, remains to be seen.
Jan 2nd: Feb 18th date for Pakistan polls
At least 20 were killed by a bomb in the eastern city of Lahore on January 10th, although violence began to abate by mid-January. As the month continued the mountainous South Waziristan province proved a focus of attention.
Tribal leader Baitullah Mehsud, chief suspect for Ms Bhutto's murder, was linked to the capture of two forts from Pakistani forces. The army hit back on January 24th, however, killing at least 40 "miscreants" in an ongoing offensive against militant positions.
Click here for a look back at Pakistan's turbulent 2007.