Exhausted and frustrated, Pakistani protesters want to go home

Either set Musharraf free or try him along with accomplices: MQM chief Published: September 17, 2014 “For me a democratic system without local government is worse than a dictatorship,” said MQM chief Altaf Hussain. PHOTO: MQM KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain said on Wednesday that the judges who have decided to try former President General (Retd) Pervez Musharraf under Article 6 for treason should either release the former dictator or take suo moto action against all those involved in the 1999 coup. Addressing his supporters via video link on Wednesday evening, Altaf asked why all those lawyers, who had participated in the movement to restore judiciary, do not protest that all those involved in 1999 coup were not being tried along with Musharraf. Democracy without local government is worse than dictatorship Talking about local government and democracy, the MQM chief said, “For me a democratic system without local government is worse than a dictatorship.” The MQM chief said whenever a civil government comes in to power in Pakistan, it never holds local bodies elections, which is the basic element of any democratic society. He added that army dictatorships should be given the credit for holding local government elections. “I would like to ask all the so called democrats and intellectuals, what is democracy?” MQM chief asked. Democracy is a system of government, by the people, off the people and for the people, it is not the rule of a family or feudals, he added. Talking about delayed justice and imprisonment of people for longer than their stipulated sentences, Altaf urged the judiciary to start accountability of lower judiciary. The MQM chief further suggested that courts should be set up in jails and inmates should be asked for how long they have been imprisoned. If prisoners have completed their term then they should be released. Responding to criticism for calling for more administrative units, Altaf said that PPP’s government had presented the resolution in the assembly for the creation of South Punjab, and now PPP’s chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is talking against the creation of new administrative units in Sindh. Addressing Bilawal, he said, “You have studied abroad, are you not aware that new administrative units are created with increase in population.” He alleged that PPP co-chairman and former president Asif Ali Zardari has found a new way of criticising people, “Where he [Zardari] does not want to say something directly, he directs Bilawal to say it.” Commenting on current political impasse, the MQM chief said, “I urge the incumbent government to accept the demands of PAT and PTI, as most of their demands are just and let the machinery of state work.” MQM government Talking about an MQM government and what they would do if they came into power, Altaf claimed that MQM’s government can come into power if the establishment helps them. “But I do not know why establishment is against us.” “If our party comes in power, in one year, we will evict the loan takers from their palaces and build schools and welfare organisations there,” said MQM chief. Referring to the prevailing energy crisis in the country, MQM chief said, “Government says they would buy electricity from China, India, I ask then why don’t they generate electricity at home?” If people of Sindh have reservations over the construction of Kalabagh Dam, then construct a network of small dams all over the country, he advised. ======================= Exhausted and frustrated, Pakistani protesters want to go home Fri, Sep 12 04:44 AM EDT image By Mehreen Zahra-Malik ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Arshad Shah, a Pakistani protester, feels trapped: worn out after weeks of street demonstrations against the government, he wants to go home but protest organizers will not let him. Like many other protesters led by cleric Tahir ul-Qadri, Shah said organizers had taken away his national identification card to prevent him from leaving the protest site outside government offices in the center of the Pakistani capital. "Some (organizers) will make up excuses for why they can't return out cards yet, others will just say directly that we can't leave until the sit-in is over," said Shah who joined the rallies from the central Pakistani city of Sargodha. "I just want our cards back so we can leave." Others said they were instructed to turn in their cards on a daily basis, get paid to spend the day at the rally and claim the card back at the end of the day. "I come in the morning and submit my CNIC (Computerised National Identity Card) to Qadri's people who then give us our daily wages of 300-400 rupees ($3-$4). We then sit around here all day," said Niaz Ahmed, a daily wage labourer. "After Dr Qadri makes his speech in the evening, we get our ID cards back and off we go. The next day we come back again. I'm making almost the same money sitting around here all day as I did working hard all day."Anti-government demonstrations erupted in Pakistan last month, with protest organizers saying their supporters will not leave until Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif resigns - a month-long standoff which has destabilized the South Asian nation. Several attempts by Sharif's aides to find a negotiated solution have failed, with protest organizers refusing to back down from their demand for his resignation. The confrontation briefly turned violent at the end of last month, with thousands trying to storm Sharif's house. But since then, the protests have dragged on listlessly, with weary protesters huddling inside their tents or sleeping on the grass verges of the capital's grandest avenues. SORRY STATE Qadri's camp categorically denied allegations that it was paying its activists or taking their identity cards away. "Dr Qadri has openly allowed people to leave if they have to. He announced this in public as well," said Shahid Mursaleen, a spokesman for Qadri's party. "I strongly reject this accusation. This is untrue and those who are saying this are probably not Dr Qadri's protesters." Qadri's activists have rallied alongside protesters led by another opposition politician, former cricket hero Imran Khan. Unlike Khan's supporters who tend to gather in the evening, Qadri's protesters are camped out outside government offices all day, sleeping and sheltering from the scorching sun or monsoon downpours in tents. The protest site, within walking distance of many embassies and ministries, is in a sorry state, littered with rubbish, with the stench of human waste hanging in the air. On the edge of the protest site, men line up every day near a burst pipe and take showers one by one. Women complain that they have hardly showered more than a few times in the last month. Some fear an outbreak of mosquito-borne dengue fever among the protesters. "The disease can rapidly spread," said Dengue Expert Committee Chairman Javed Akram. "There is no proper sewerage facility in the area. The vulnerability of the sit-in participants has increased because of the unavailability of a waste management system." At least three women protesters, all of them domestic workers, said they had been paid to come to the rallies when they were first launched. One of them, with three children under the age of six, said mothers were paid 2,500 rupees ($25) more. "You got paid more if you have a child," said Rukhsana Bibi, one of the women. "They wanted more women with children to join the rallies so the pay for that was higher." (Writing by Maria Golovnina; Editing by Robert Birsel) ========================= Tense stand-off in Pakistani capital as political crisis deepens Sat, Sep 13 13:55 PM EDT image By Syed Raza Hassan and Maria Golovnina ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan's opposition leaders ordered thousands of their supporters on Saturday to resist any government attempt to quash their protests against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, deepening a political crisis in the coup-prone nation. A court in the capital earlier ordered that 100 opposition activists be sent to jail for holding illegal protests and other violations, enraging the protesters who have camped out outside government offices in Islamabad for a month. Demonstrators led by Imran Khan, a former cricket star, and Tahir ul-Qadri, a firebrand cleric, have been locked in a bitter stand-off with the government for weeks, refusing to leave their protest camp until Sharif resigns. On Saturday, a crowd of demonstrators gathered outside a court in Islamabad in a protest against its decision to send 100 activists to jail for two weeks, with some trying to slash the tires of a police van and shouting "Go, Nawaz, go!" Although the crowd eventually left peacefully after a two-hour stand-off with police, the episode highlighted just how nervous both sides of the conflict remained after talks to resolve the crisis failed several times. Protest leaders accuse Sharif of rigging last year's election which brought him back to power in a landslide and say they will not back down until he resigns - a demand Sharif has repeatedly rejected. On Saturday night, the protest camp crowd in the so-called Red Zone - home to Sharif's house, ministries and embassies - swelled to at least 7,000 people, with opposition leaders adamant in their call for the prime minister to resign. "Pakistan has woken up, our women and children have woken up," Khan told thousands of flag-waving supporters, many of their faces painted in the green and red colors of his party. Some had climbed on lampposts for a better view. "We will never bow down in the face of oppression ... Go, Nawaz, go!" Khan, a flamboyant politician who was among Sharif's main rivals in last year's election, had earlier rejected any idea of talks with government officials, saying he would not abandon his cause until the prime minister resigned. Although the government has warned it had the right to crack down to disperse the protesters, security forces protecting nearby government buildings looked on and showed no sign of action. Qadri, the other protest leader, told his supporters to resist any attempt to disperse them. "If any policeman comes near your sit-in, break his legs," he told the crowd. "They are terrorists. The revolution is near, it's a matter of a few days. The people have woken up." PRESSURE For Sharif, the persistent protests come at a difficult time when his government is already under pressure for not doing enough to tackle deadly floods around the country which have killed 280 people and affected the lives of two million. The confrontation turned violent last month, with thousands trying to storm Sharif's house and briefly taking the state television channel off the air. Violence in the usually quiet capital has alarmed many people in a nation where power has often changed hands though military coups rather than elections. The army, which has ruled Pakistan for more than half of its history, has stayed out of the conflict, urging both sides to find a political solution. Yet, some ruling party officials have accused the military itself of instigating the unrest as a way of unsettling Sharif and exerting supremacy over him. The army has denied it was meddling in civilian affairs, saying it is neutral. Late on Friday, an army spokesman once again repeated that the army had nothing to do with the conflict. Few commentators think the army wants to seize power again but, even if Sharif survives, he would emerge significantly weakened and likely play second-fiddle to the army on key security and foreign policy issues. (Writing by Maria Golovnina; Editing by Pravin Char) ================