Pakistan scheduled to have elections in January by Corina Ciubotaru

Nobody knows what to believe about Pakistan. After former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto returned from exile a few weeks ago, suicide bombers killed more than 140 people as a reminder of the fact that not all people there want to see her back in office. She suggested peaceful negotiations with President General Musharraf, to have him continue as leader of the country and her as his Prime Minister, but it looks like he has other things on his mind. After promising to give up his military status and become a civilian president, he enforced emergency rule in the country and started getting rid of all of his opponents: 500 activists were arrested during the weekend and the head of the Justice Court was replaced, possibly out of fears that he would have exposed the fraud of the last elections in which the general became President. The Americans and the British now regret sending billions of dollars to Pakistan, their local anti-terrorism ally and are now urging Musharraf to reconsider the emergency rule. Now here's another surprise: after everyone thought that Pakistan will turn into a full dictatorship, it turns out the President wants to have elections in January. Though it's still unclear whether the planned parliamentary elections will also take place in January as scheduled, hopes are high for the country to return to civilian leadership after having been run by generals for half the time since its formation in 1947. A fair election would be good for the future, but one never knows what the future might bring.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071105/ts_nm/pakistan_dc;_ylt=AuV_0u_zVpx8pHaYZjGutFus0NUE

by Corina Ciubotaru for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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