Saturday night in Pakistan...

It's interesting to note that the PPP takes a play from the Dems playbook by spinning the "Claim you're going to win and say that you'll only lose if the other side cheats" card. Sound familiar, my little hanging chad?

The only difference? their "we were robbed!" card has the implied threat of violent action in the Moslem street to make it complete.

"If there are is rigging...we'll look at other options...For instance, to collectively start a struggle,” Zardari said.

Pakistan People’s Party co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari said on Saturday that his party was certain to win a free and fair election and warned that rigging could lead to more unrest in the country.

“We are not looking at the position of losing at the moment. We are hoping to win, and we are in the race to win,” Mr. Zardari said in an interview two days before the election. “All the pollsters are predicting our victory, and collectively, we want to become part of the solution, and not the problem. But that depends on if there is no rigging day after,” he said.

And taking ANOTHER page from the Dem playbook but this time it's "Developing Opposition Candidate derangement syndrome. In Nawaz's case its exhibiting itself as: Musharraf has lost mental balance. Not to be outdone, US State department's Sean McCormack chimes in with, "You naughty Pervez! Blah-blah-blah. I still wouldn't say shi% if I had a mouthful."

The US State Department, for the first time, has openly disagreed with President Pervez Musharraf’s suggestion that he would not tolerate protests after the election.“People have the right to peacefully protest and to peacefully speak out on their opinions regardless of whether those opinions are supportive of a government,” said the department’s spokesman Sean McCormack while commenting on the statement the president made during a television interview on Thursday.

The cult of political personality is alive and well as Benazir Bhutto's posters sell like hotcakes. There's no plan to curb media on the 18th and Voter turnout is predicted to be light. I wonder, will the pollsters be as accurate in Pakistan as they are in the US? The youth vote is supposedly disenchanted with the candidates and the process. Suck it up, dudes. You could be here in the US fainting in your chair and looking at Obama.

And it's funny how this works too, isn't it? All the prestigious election observers that the US tried to send over to observe the Pakistan election wouldn't go because...they were scared.

They called the Carter Center. They called the National Democratic Institute. They called the Asia Foundation. But those well-established nongovernmental groups turned down the State Department, just as the International Republican Institute did unexpectedly on Jan. 30, saying that security concerns make it impossible to monitor the nationwide vote or properly evaluate the outcome.

The U.S. Agency for International Development then reached out to the last name on its list: Democracy International, a small, Bethesda-based consulting firm that does 90 percent of its business with the U.S. government.

Finally, someone said yes. The State Department and Democracy International signed the contract, worth nearly $1 million, on Feb. 8, only 10 days before the vote. The agreement came at "close to the eleventh hour," Mark S. Ward, USAID's acting assistant administrator for Asia and the Near East, said in an interview.

100 miscreants surrender in Swat. Approximately one third of all eligible women voters in the FATA tribal region are being kept away from the polls because of threats and intimidation. While half of the women voters in Pakistan do not have the CNIC - Computerized National Identity Cards required for voting. Talk about disenfranchisement!

A suicide bomber is arrested in Hyderabad and saboteurs are to be shot on sight. Militants blow up polling stations in Bajaur and a telephone station in Swat. Additional detail on the Bajaur attacks can be found here.

Imran Khan proves once again to be the leader of a party of hooligans. Police break up anti-poll protest. Jemima's been busy spewing her mush and spreading her venom as well, I see.

The Independent on Sunday turns its attention to Pakistan and trumpets an exclusive interview with President Musharraf - conducted by Jemima Khan.

The ex-wife of Imran Khan - who is one of the general's sternest critics - tells of how she spent half an hour in Musharraf's office, with him painting himself as a benign, legitimised dictator.

She leaves her meeting with an impression of amateurishness and naivety that would be endearing - if it had not been so bad for the country.

Yikes - feeling like I need a shower AND a dose of an anti-venom after that one. Good thing, I see more evidence that like the Dems, the Taliban have over-reached as The charm is evidently off the mullahs.

More good news for all you Pakistani wage slaves: Gov't switches from 6 to 5 day work week.

IMO Musharraf is misunderstood by the media, the politicians and the great unwashed. Oh, and speaking of unwashed, I'm not thinking very highly of Mrs. Imran Khan at this moment either.

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