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Pakistani Prime Minister Frees Judges
By Matthew Pennington
The Associated Press
Tuesday 25 March 2008
Islamabad, Pakistan - The deposed chief justice emerged from house arrest Monday
after Pakistan's new prime minister ordered police to pull back razor-wire barricades
and release judges ousted last year by President Pervez Musharraf.
The judge's appearance on the balcony of his Islamabad villa drew cheers from
hundreds of flag-waving, drum-beating supporters and dramatically underlined
how power is slipping away from a stalwart U.S. ally.
Early on Tuesday, two senior U.S. envoys arrived in Islamabad for talks with
government officials and others.
Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry and his family had been confined to the house since
Musharraf declared a state of emergency in November and sacked 60 senior judges
ahead of a Supreme Court ruling that could have invalidated his re-election
as president.
"I have no words to thank you for the way you struggled for nearly five
months for the enforcement of the rule of law and our constitution," said
a beaming Chaudhry as lawyers and opposition activists clapped and threw rose
petals.
Just two hours earlier, parliament had elected a loyalist of slain ex-leader
Benazir Bhutto as Pakistan's new prime minister following a victory by Bhutto's
party in February elections that dealt a crushing defeat to Musharraf's allies.
Yousaf Raza Gilani, a former house speaker who until two years ago was jailed
under what he claims were politically motivated charges, beat the pro-Musharraf
candidate, Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, by 264 votes to 42.
The new prime minister immediately shook hands with Bhutto's 19-year old son,
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who watched from the VIP gallery, wiping tears from
his face and smiling. His mother held the post of prime minister twice before
she was killed in a suicide attack in December.
Cheers of "Long live Bhutto, BB is still alive!" rang out through
parliament, as Gilani addressed the house for the first time as premier, saying
he would seek a U.N. investigation into Bhutto's killing. He also ordered the
immediate release of the detained judges, including Chaudhry.
"Democracy has been revived due to the sacrifice of Benazir Bhutto,"
he said, as lawmakers thumped their desks in approval.
"We didn't get here out of charity. This moment came because of continued
struggle and martyrdom."
Gilani himself spent five years in prison under Musharraf on accusations of
abusing his power in making appointments while parliament speaker. A court freed
him in 2006.
Gilani, who will be sworn in by the president on Tuesday, will form a government
also comprising the party of Nawaz Sharif, who was ousted in Musharraf's 1999
coup.
The coalition partners have vowed to slash the president's sweeping powers
and review his counterterrorism policies. Many Pakistanis resent his support
of Washington's campaign against al-Qaida and the Taliban, claiming it has stoked
a bloody backlash by extremists.
The rapidly changing political climate in Pakistan poses policy problems for
the United States.
The Bush administration has been a staunch supporter of Musharraf but in recent
weeks has started to put some discreet distance between itself and a once "indispensable"
ally in the war on terror.
In Washington, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino congratulated Gilani and
the Pakistani people "for moving quickly to form a new government."
The U.S. Embassy said Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte and Assistant
Secretary of State for South Asia Richard Boucher arrived in Islamabad early
on Tuesday.
Embassy spokeswoman Kay Mayfield said the Americans planned to meet with figures
inside and outside the government as well as civil society groups.
She would not say whether they would meet with Musharraf or leaders of the
incoming government.
The freeing of Chaudhry - who emerged last year as the main check on Musharraf's
eight-year domination of Pakistan - is a telling sign of how power is shifting
from the military to civilians.
More critical than freeing the judges will be whether the new government honors
its promise to reinstate Chaudhry and his colleagues within 30 days - a move
that could make Musharraf's position increasingly untenable.
Some believe it could pressure the president to resign even though he has vowed
to serve out his five-year term. In November, he gave up his powerful post as
army chief.
Musharraf has sounded increasingly bitter about Chaudhry, declaring his reinstatement
to be legally impossible. In recent interview, he was quoted as branding Chaudhry
"scum of the earth."
In his brief address, Chaudhry cautioned that "our destination is still
a little far away." He called for continuing support for restoration of
the judiciary.
Ayaz Amir, a newspaper columnist and lawmaker for Sharif's party, said there
was still some ambiguity in the position of Bhutto's party, but he believed
it would be difficult to resist public pressure to bring back Chaudhry.
"They have to take a quick decision or this will be a cloud hanging over
the new government," Amir said from the lawn of Chaudhry's two-story hilltop
villa.
Earlier, scores of lawyers and opposition activists had converged on the residential
enclave for judges, minutes after hearing Gilani's address in parliament. They
urged police to roll back the razor-wire barricade that had blocked access to
Chaudhry's house since November.
They then ran a few hundred yards up the access road and clambered over the
wall of Chaudhry's house because the gates were still locked. Police did nothing
to stop them.
"The judiciary was destroyed, but now our people are going to be free
and our people will get justice," said Yasir Hussain Shah, a 27-year old
lawyer, as jubilant opposition activists danced to drums on the lawn and chanted
"Go, Musharraf, Go!"
"No one will have the power to arrest judges again," he said.
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Associated Press writer Munir Ahmad contributed to this report.
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