Pakistan's parliament is scheduled to dissolve itself at midnight Thursday to make way for a new caretaker government to oversee January elections. VOA's Barry Newhouse reports from Islamabad that while President Pervez Musharraf tries to make the elections appear credible despite emergency rule, his opponents are busy uniting against him.| I'm mildly surprised by this, hence the pic. Forming a caretaker government introduces a new level of uncertainty for Perv at a time when he's desparately trying to lock things down in his favor. It's not at all clear to me that the caretakers will be all Perv's drinking buddies. Perhaps Fred or John Frum have a clue on that one ... |
| That just might be true in Pakland, which is a sorry statement in and of itself. |
Ahsan Iqbal is a spokesman for the political party of exiled former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. He spoke to VOA by telephone. "After elections were announced, they should have put an end to all these arrests of opposition leaders," said Iqbal. "But they are still hounding us; they are still searching for us. I am in a hideout. The entire leadership of the PML-N is either in jail or in detention or they are in hiding. So how can there be fair and free elections in the country."
While the government crackdown is succeeding in preventing mass protests, its success is unifying political opposition leaders.
Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has confirmed that she has spoken with Mr. Sharif about forming a broad coalition to challenge General Musharraf. "I think that we the leaders of political parties need to exchange ideas of what could be a possible agenda for all of us to rally around," she said.
| She'll ally herself with Nawaz just long enough to get his votes, and then dump him like a cheap date. He's very likely to remain sleeping in Saoodiland for a long time to come. |
Dawn and a few other stations have agreed to abide by a new code of conduct that bars news coverage that directly criticizes President Musharraf, the army or the judiciary. Criticism of the president's policies is allowed.
| But since the policies and the man are intertwined, criticize at your peril. |