Mushraff getting ready by Claudia Sonea

In Pakistan changes are being made for the parliamentary elections that will take place on January 2008. President Gen. Pervez Musharraf has started already to prepare his territory and in order to please both the opposition and especially the US and Western allies 5,634 lawyers and political party members were freed, while the other 623 people remaining in custody are due to be freed, according to Law Minister Afzal Hayder. Musharraf suspended the constitution and decreed emergency powers starting November 3, leaving completely outraged Washington and the European Union. The President justified the emergency rule with the escalating danger posed by Islamic extremists and is now trying to repair his bruised credentials as a democrat and a reliable ally in the fight against international terrorism. Attorney General Malik Mohammed Qayyum told The Associated Press that the President is a man of his word and if he said that he will step down as army chief, he will do it. Among the freed hostages there are Imran Khan, a former cricket star who has become a firebrand in the opposition to Musharraf's rule and Javed Hashmi, acting president of the party of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Musharraf's most dogged foe. Nevertheless after being freed they kept on calling to boycott the parliamentary elections and prevent that the deceiving President wins them. Furthermore, Khan accuses America and the West for being afraid that without Musharraf the nuclear bomb will get into extremist hands. The President's main concern is a possible alliance between the key opposition leader, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, and Nawaz Sharif, who confessed to have tried to convince her in a telephone conversation. Bhutto's party cheered the release of the hostages, but they criticized the halt of the other, as well as the fact that Musharraf cannot be trusted; according to spokesman Farhatullah Babar it is too early to state an opinion on the matter. Both Bhutto and Musharraf are calling for moderate political forces to reconcile and revitalize Pakistan's campaign against Islamic militants. Therefore US see in an alliance between the two as the best choice for democratic legitimacy and that is why Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte tried to convince them to return to the agenda made on his last visit. As his replacement in the in the role of chief of staff of the army, Musharraf has chosen the military's current deputy commander, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani. It is interesting to stay and watch where everything is heading, according to Najam Sethi, editor of the Pakistani newspaper Daily Times. Pervez Musharraf is the army's candidate and that doesn't put him in a good light, while Bhutto cannot boycott elections because it would lead to gains by Islamic parties sympathetic to the Taliban and al-Qaida. More to come…

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071121/ap_on_re_as/pakistan;_ylt=AgIaOuX5kWRw6LblorTLZtms0NUE

by Claudia Sonea for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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