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| India-Pakistan |
| Pakistan's Sharif stirs call for Musharraf to be hanged |
| 2008-06-14 |
| ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan's former prime minister Nawaz Sharif stepped up his attack on President Pervez Musharraf on Saturday, suggesting he could be hanged while addressing thousands of protesters outside the presidency. "We asked you to quit with honor after the election but you didn't," Sharif told the crowd, referring to U.S. ally Musharraf, who overthrew him in a 1999 coup. "Now people have given a new judgment for you ... they want you to be held accountable," he said in the early hours of Saturday. The crowd, officially estimated at up to 20,000, chanted "hang Musharraf" as it listened to the two time former prime minister's fiery speech. "Is hanging only for politicians?" asked Sharif, referring to former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, hanged by a military dictator in 1979. "These blood-sucking dictators must be held accountable." The demonstration, a few hundred meters from the presidency and parliament buildings, marked the climax of an almost week-long rolling protest across the country led by lawyers, though by the end they were easily outnumbered by Sharif party activists. The United States and other Western allies fear prolonged political instability in the turbulent nuclear-armed Muslim nation will play into the hands of Islamist militants and undermine the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism. |
| Posted by:john frum |
| #2 Sharif is making some pretty powerful enemies, especially in the military. He'd better learn to keep his mouth shut, or his life expectancy will drop to zero. The military may not OPENLY run things in Pakistan, but they're still the power brokers. Perv is one of them, not one of Sharif's followers. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2008-06-14 18:19 |
| #1 ...who overthrew him in a 1999 coup. Demonstating, once again, why you really shouldn't leave your enemies alive after a coup... |
| Posted by: PBMcL 2008-06-14 12:23 |