Pakistan: A quick roundup

Musharraf promises "Mother of all Elections" and Zero tolerance for street protests.

Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s president, on Thursday promised the “mother of all elections” when the troubled south Asian country goes to the polls on Monday, as he rejected accusations of pre-poll rigging and warned opposition parties against the temptation of street protests.

“Politicians should not be under any illusion that they can bring people to the streets after the elections. Nothing of the sort will be allowed,” Mr Musharraf told a conference of government officials in Islamabad. “In this situation of extremism and terrorism, no agitation, anarchy or chaos can be acceptable.”

What about zero tolerance for rigging? In what has to be the bonehead move of the election, the Attorney General has been taped saying that the elections will be "massively rigged".

A US-based human rights group on Friday released, what it claimed, was an audiotape of Pakistan’s attorney general acknowledging that the general election would be "massively" rigged.The Human Rights Watch said a journalist had made the recording during a telephone interview with Malik Mohammad Qayyum when the latter took a second call without disconnecting the first, allowing his end of the second conversation to be overheard and recorded.

Denials have been issued.

Not to worry, Joe Biden and John Kerry join Chuck Hagel as observers for the election with big bad Joe Biden calling for a cutoff of military aid if elections don't go smoothly. Musharraf, meantime meets with election observer and UK socialite Jemima Khan. And local leaders in Islamabad vow to keep women from voting and a fatwa is issued against voting for rivals of the Jamiat Ulema e Islam -Fazl party.

A Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) cleric has issued a decree claiming that casting a vote in favour of rival party candidates is “haram”. Cleric Abdul Mateen, who is caretaker of a madrassa and former JUI-F district chief, said that since “JUI-F is struggling for enforcement of Shariah, its candidates deserve to be voted (into power). Since, rival candidates do not struggle for Shariah, they do not deserve to be voted into power.”

So there.

A plot to disrupt polling is broken up in Karachi. 16 were arrested of which 6 were suicide bombers and yes, they were Moslems.

The hunt intensifies for kidnapped Pakistani envoy as 6 members of the Junda Khel tribe are arrested in conjunction with the kidnapping of Pakistani envoy and another suspect is arrested in the assassination/bombing of Benazir Bhutto.

What a bunch of sweethearts. Islamic women raid restaurants in protest against Valentine's Day.
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