Arashi
05-13-2007, 06:00 AM
Sunday, May 13, 2007 (Karachi)
Thirty four people were killed as a gunbattle broke out on the streets of Karachi in the worst political violence in years in Pakistan over the judicial crisis, which has gripped the nation.
On Saturday, sacked Chief Justice Iftikar Mohd Chaudhry flew into Karachi to address a rally at the Sindh High Court.
However, he waited at the airport for over eight hours and then had to fly back to Islamabad.
Supporters of the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) and the People's Party of Pakistan, the party of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, fought an hour-long gunbattle.
It is being alleged that the MQM supporters of President Pervez Musharraf prevented the sacked Chief Justice from entering Karachi to address the rally.
TV channels for the most part were blacked out and one media house in particular, AAJ TV, was attacked with gunfire.
Show of strength
No police protection was provided while several shootings were reported in various parts of the city.
It was a show of strength by supporters of President Musharraf and those of the sacked Chief Justice, but it was Musharraf who managed to address a rally in Islamabad.
''Musharraf has put people in Guantanamo. But will today's culprits be put in Guantanamo?'' said Nawaz Sharif, Leader, PML(N).
It's a question that's being asked on the streets of Pakistan as well. Musharraf's response was a show of strength in Islamabad with a warning that no one should politicise his decision to dismiss Chaudhry.
He even stopped short of declaring any emergency.
''I hear a lot of people, undercurrents of that whatever is happening today - maybe an emergency is declared. Let me assure you ladies and gentlemen, there is no question of that, nothing of that sort is happening,'' Musharraf said earlier on Saturday.
As Karachi totals the cost of Saturday's violence, the clampdown has begun. The Sindh province is out of bounds for Justice Chaudhry and most of the private TV networks are being disrupted.
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20070011841
------
And I live here. In Karachi.
And I makes me so sad, and angry.
Thirty four people were killed as a gunbattle broke out on the streets of Karachi in the worst political violence in years in Pakistan over the judicial crisis, which has gripped the nation.
On Saturday, sacked Chief Justice Iftikar Mohd Chaudhry flew into Karachi to address a rally at the Sindh High Court.
However, he waited at the airport for over eight hours and then had to fly back to Islamabad.
Supporters of the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) and the People's Party of Pakistan, the party of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, fought an hour-long gunbattle.
It is being alleged that the MQM supporters of President Pervez Musharraf prevented the sacked Chief Justice from entering Karachi to address the rally.
TV channels for the most part were blacked out and one media house in particular, AAJ TV, was attacked with gunfire.
Show of strength
No police protection was provided while several shootings were reported in various parts of the city.
It was a show of strength by supporters of President Musharraf and those of the sacked Chief Justice, but it was Musharraf who managed to address a rally in Islamabad.
''Musharraf has put people in Guantanamo. But will today's culprits be put in Guantanamo?'' said Nawaz Sharif, Leader, PML(N).
It's a question that's being asked on the streets of Pakistan as well. Musharraf's response was a show of strength in Islamabad with a warning that no one should politicise his decision to dismiss Chaudhry.
He even stopped short of declaring any emergency.
''I hear a lot of people, undercurrents of that whatever is happening today - maybe an emergency is declared. Let me assure you ladies and gentlemen, there is no question of that, nothing of that sort is happening,'' Musharraf said earlier on Saturday.
As Karachi totals the cost of Saturday's violence, the clampdown has begun. The Sindh province is out of bounds for Justice Chaudhry and most of the private TV networks are being disrupted.
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20070011841
------
And I live here. In Karachi.
And I makes me so sad, and angry.