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Saturday, February 23, 2008

[chottala.com] OPA observed Ekushey February

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[chottala.com] Islamists Big Loser in Pakistan Polls

Islamists Big Loser in Pakistan Polls
By  Aamir Latif, IOL Correspondent
 
s.
ISLAMABAD — Between the many who have boycotted and the few who have contested, Islamic parties remain one of the biggest losers in Pakistan's general elections.
"This is not an unexpected results for me," Imtiaz Hussein, a Peshawar-based political analyst, told IslamOnline.net.
The Islamic parties had participated in the 2002 general elections under the banner of the Muttehida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), a six-party coalition, and secured 66 seats in the 272-member National Assembly. 
It also formed its own government in the North Western Frontier Province (NWFP) and was a major coalition partner in Balochistan government.   
But this time, the MMA was cracks-stricken.
The Jammat-e-Islami, Pakistan's largest Islamic party, and two other components of the MMA alliance boycotted the elections.
Only the Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI) of former parliamentary opposition leader Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman, a friend of President Pervez Musharraf, and two other minor partners contested the polls.
Of the 262 constituencies announced, the JUI won only 5 national assembly seats down from 48 seats in the outgoing legislature.
The opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) is leading with 87 seats followed by 67 for the Pakistan Muslim League (N) of former premier Nawaz Sharif.
The JUI got only 10 seats in the 99-member NWFP assembly, where it was the ruling party with 59 seats.
The left-wing Awami National Party (ANP), which was wiped out by the MMA in the 2002 elections, has regained its strongholds securing 31 seats up from 10.
The PPP stands second with 17 seats.
The JUI similarly won seven seats in the 51-member Balochistan Assembly, where it was a major ruling coalition partner with 14 assembly seats.
Split
Hussein, the analyst, insists it would not be accurate to say that the MMA has lost the elections.
"In fact the JUI has lost the elections, because the three out of six components of the MMA, especially Jammat-e-Islami, which has a sizable vote bank in most parts of the country, did not participate in the polls," he explained.
"The JUI has never been a nation-wide party. It has pockets with a strong vote bank in northern Balochistan, and southern parts of the NWFP."
Hussein notes that the circumstances in the 2002 elections were totally different.
"If a united MMA had participated in these elections, the situation would have been much better," he said.
JUI leader Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman blamed Qazi Hussein Ahmad, the chief of Jammat-e-Islami, for their defeat.
"Qazi's boycott appears to be a setback to the MMA in these elections," he told reporters.
"I guess he understands this too. He and his team should confess to have committed a blunder that has shattered the MMA."
Musharraf Factor  
But many experts link the JUI's crushing defeat to its support for unpopular Musharraf.
"It was not the issue of bad governance behind JUI or MMA's defeat in NWFP, it is mainly because of the JUI's support to Musharraf," said Hussein, the expert.
"People this time have cast their votes, especially in NWFP against Musharraf's supporters, whether it is PML (Q) or the JUI."
Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman had supported embattled Musharraf very tactfully in every hour of need, contested the polls.
He helped Musharraf in the presidential elections by not dissolving the NWFP assembly on time.
"Fazl had been completely exposed by doing this. And the Jammat-e-Islami, whose ministers and assembly members resigned before the presidential elections, had decided to part its ways with him," Hussein said.
"If you look at the results, the JUI candidates have lost many seats by a difference of two to five thousand votes, which could have been coped with if the Jammat were in the election process."
The analyst believes that in 2002, the people cast their votes to a combination of religious parties, instead of individual religious parties or groups.
"If you look at the example of Peshawar valley, where the JUI has been totally wiped out, the combined vote of six religious parties is still higher than other parties.
"But because the JUI was contesting elections separately this time, therefore the Jammat-e-Islami, which has bigger vote bank than JUI here, stayed away from the polling giving an edge to the secular parties."
Ikram Sehgal, a Karachi-based analyst, says the deteriorating security situation in the last year of MMA stint in NWP and a lenient handling of pro-Taliban elements in the province propel Pushtuns to change their mind.
"The MMA government did not tackle the law and order situation, particularly vis-à-vis pro-Taliban elements, who have established a state within state even in some settled areas of NWFP, including Swat," he told IOL.
Army troops fought weeks-long battles with supporters of Maulana Fazlullah of the Tehrik Nifaz Shariat-e-Muhammedi in the northern district of Swat two months back.
"I knew that the MMA was going to loose in settled areas, but their defeat in mountains (tribal belt) is totally surprising to me," Sehgal said.
Reports reaching from South and North Wazisristan as well as other tribal agencies show none of the JUI candidates won there and all seven seats went to independent candidates.
Maulan Fazl-ur-Rehman lost his provincial assembly seat in his hometown, Dera Ismaeel Khan, which borders South Waziristan.
He lost to Faisal Karim Kundi, a young PPP candidate, by a huge margin of 40,000 votes.
Fazl, however, managed to become victor on a national assembly seat from Bannu district with a small margin of 1000 votes against an independent candidate.
"I cast my vote against Maulana Fazl this time because during the last five years, he proved that he doesn't deserve our votes," Hussein Ali, an engineer based in Dera Ismaeel Khan told IOL.
"He did everything to support and strengthen the status quo and Pervez Musharraf. We had voted for him for a change in status-quo."
Hamid Mir, a political analyst, says the Wazir and Mehsud tribesmen in Dera Ismaeel Khan not merely cast their votes in favor of the PPP candidate but also encouraged others to do that.
Wazir and Mehsud are the two powerful and rival tribes of South Waziristan.
Wazirs are known as pro-government Taliban, while Mehsuds led by most-wanted Baitullah Mehsud are anti-government Taliban.
"Tribesmen, including Wazirs and Mehsuds, have cast their vote against a person (Fazl) who played a key role in the re-election of Musharraf as president, whom they dub as responsible for Red Mosque tragedy," said Mir.
"This is not Musharraf's defeat, but it's a defeat of [US President George] Bush whose agenda has been rejected by the people of Pakistan."


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[chottala.com] Police Remand


 
Police remand should be stopped immediately as many innocent people are being tortured in the remand, speakers at a workshop said yesterday.

They also called for raising mass awareness in order to put an end to all kinds of torture against women, children, labourers, detainees, prisoners and political activists.

The Centre for Rehabilitation of Torture Survivors (CRTS) organised two-day workshop on 'Comprehensive rehabilitation of torture victims' at the Academy for Planning and Development (APD) in the city. A total of 41 participants took part in the workshop.

ASM Shahjahan, former adviser to the caretaker government, said many innocent people are falling victim to torture in the police remand.

Police remand should be stopped immediately as it leads to violations of human rights, he said as the chief guest at the concluding session of the workshop.

Human rights activist Dr Hameeda Hossain and CRTS Executive Director Dr Kamrul Hasan Khan and President Dr Abdus Sobhan were also present.
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