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US, Britain Demand Elections

Pressure on Pakistan's Musharraf Grows

Two days after declaring a state of emergency in Pakistan, pressure from his Western allies is growing on President Gen. Pervez Musharraf. Both London and Washington demand that he hold elections on schedule.

Even as the pressure mounts on Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf from his Western allies to back away from the emergency rule he imposed on his country over the weekend, police forces violently crushed Monday demonstrations which saw thousands of lawyers take to the streets.

Security forces in a number of Pakistani cities used batons and tear gas on Monday to quell spontaneous demonstrations against Musharraf's suspension of the constitution. Some 2,000 lawyers gathered in Lahore and shouted "Go Musharraf Go" before police waded in to break up the march, according to the Associated Press. Demonstrators responded by throwing rocks and hitting police with branches. Well over 200 were arrested.

Police in the capital Islamabad erected a barbed-wire barrier in front of the Supreme Court. Many of the court justices had been placed under house arrest on Saturday as part of the emergency declaration with only five of 17 taking a new oath of office under the new regime. So far, demonstrations have been limited to lawyers and human rights activists.

The unrest comes despite widespread arrests of opposition activists over the weekend with up to 1,500 people having been detained in the last 48 hours according to wire reports. Musharraf said in a televized statement on Saturday evening that he had assumed the emergency powers in response to risks posed by Islamic extremists and blamed the country's high court for hindering that effort by releasing terror suspects.

Most observers discount that explanation and point to the fact that the Supreme Court was set to rule this week on the legitimacy of Musharraf's re-election last month. But Musharraf had tried to fire Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry earlier this year -- an event that triggered a rapid decline in Musharraf's popularity and turned the court against him. Many assumed that the court would rule that Musharraf's had not been eligible to run for re-election last month while remaining army chief.

International broadcasters CNN and BBC remained off the air in Pakistan and police raided the offices of the daily newspaper Awam on Monday. Other media outlets were likewise raided.

Musharraf's move puts the US in a difficult spot. Since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Pakistan has been Washington's closest regional ally in the war on terror, despite Musharraf's apparent inability -- or unwillingness -- to root out al-Qaida and Taliban cells from the Afghanistan border region. The US has begun a review of future aid to Pakistan, calling into question a program that has sent $10 billion to the country in the last five years.

"I want to be very clear," US Secretary of Sate Condoleezza Rice said at a press conference in the West Bank on Monday. "We believe that the best path for Pakistan is to quickly return to a constitutional path and then to hold elections." Rice also urged Musharraf to resign from his military post as he has repeatedly promised to do this autumn. "President Musharraf has said that he will take off his uniform," Rice said. "That would be an important step."

Britain too has warned Pakistan that future aid may be at stake calling into question a $491 million (€339 million) aid program from 2005-2008. And the Netherlands on Monday became the first country to completely shut off aid to the South Asian country, suspending the remainder of €15 million ($22 million) yet to be paid this year. Holland had been planning to almost triple aid next year.

Both the United States and Britain are pressuring Musharraf, who gained power in Pakistan in a 1999 putsch, to hold democratic elections as planned in January of 2008. He says he remains committed to bringing democracy to Pakistan, but that elections may have to be postponed by as much as a year.

cgh/AP/Reuters