[Onthebarricades] Protests, repression in Pakistan

Fri Mar 16 21:37:56 PDT 2007

http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2007-03-16T234240Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-291227-4.xml&archived=False
Pakistani riot police storm TV channel's office
Fri Mar 16, 2007 11:52 PM IST
By Augustine Anthony
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani riot police stormed a private television channel's offices and tear-gassed employees after its editors refused to stop broadcasting pictures of protests in Islamabad over moves to sack the country's top judge.

Geo News Bureau Chief Hamid Mir, who later received a televised apology from President Pervez Musharraf, said the police broke windows, scuffled with staff and released teargas in the office, as the hearing against Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary resumed in the nearby Supreme Court.

"They tried to drag me out," Mir said on air during the raid. "They're demanding a camera installed on the roof should be removed."

The channel was able to broadcast live pictures of the helmeted police carrying shields and batons bursting into the channel's building, and Geo vehicles parked outside were damaged.

Strategically located at an intersection covering routes to the Presidency building, the Supreme Court and National Assembly, Geo's rooftop camera had a panoramic view of the anti-government demonstrations, and had been broadcasting pictures for hours.

Musharraf condemned the police violence in a telephone interview with Mir and promised action against those responsible.

"I would like to tell the nation, main strength of my reforms are, these are freedom of peace, freedom of expression, freedom of media. this is our mandate, supremacy of human rights, this is also our mandate. So violation of these, I strongly condemn it.

But the extraordinary scenes will severely damage any notions the media operates freely in Pakistan, even though the media industry has flourished since Musharraf came to power after a military coup in 1999.

More than 100 journalists gathered outside the Geo building shouting slogans against the government after the police raid.

The neighbouring office of The News daily which, like Geo, belongs to the Jang group, was also damaged by police.

Many new television channels, including Geo, have opened up during Musharraf's rule, but editors still sometimes come under pressure over reporting.

The authorities stopped GEO from airing its flagship nightly current affairs show on Thursday, a day before the Supreme Judicial Council resumed hearing the case against Chief Justice Chaudhary.

The media, lawyers and opposition politicians have lambasted the government over the treatment of the judge, accusing it of acting unconstitutionally. Chaudhary has been kept incommunicado at his residence.

Chaudhary was suspended last Friday, after vague allegations of "misconduct and misuse of authority" were made against him. 

The government's behaviour has fuelled speculation that the independent-minded judge was being sacked because he might oppose any move by Musharraf to retain his role as army chief, which under the constitution he should relinquish this year.

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http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_2084783,00.html

Tear gas fired in Pakistan riot
16/03/2007 14:11  - (SA)   

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Islamabad - Pakistani riot police fired tear gas and arrested a top Islamist leader on Friday amid protests in Islamabad against the sacking of the country's top judge, AFP reporters and witnesses said. 

Some 500 lawyers, political leaders and hardline Islamists were gathered outside the Supreme Court building despite a blockade by police, the reporters said. 

Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry is due to attend a hearing at the court later in the day into misconduct charges laid by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf a week ago. 

Police seized Qazi Hussain Ahmed, the president of Pakistan's main alliance of religious parties, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) or United Action Front, after he tried to break through a security cordon, witnesses said. 

He tried to resist arrest but was placed into an official jeep. However the vehicle could not drive out through the crowd, they said. 

Another eight Islamist activists were also arrested, officials said. 

Other protesters ran from billowing clouds of tear gas across a patch of open ground just outside the security cordon and next to the AFP bureau in the capital. 

Ahmed had earlier led a session of Friday prayers in front of parliament lodges. 

Police also baton-charged 50 lawyers and political activists who were shouting anti-Musharraf slogans to push them back from a road outside the nearby Supreme Court building, an AFP reporter said. 

They shouted "Go Musharraf, go" and "Shame, shame" when security vehicles passed by. 

"This is the beginning of the end of president Musharraf, his cronies and collaborators," said Khwaja Asif, a senior leader of former premier Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League party. 

The leader of the secular Awami National Party, Asfandyar Wali, said: "I hope good sense will prevail. The order against the chief justice must be withdrawn. This is the only honourable way out." 

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