{"id":4842,"date":"2007-11-05T15:32:10","date_gmt":"2007-11-05T20:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com?p=4842"},"modified":"2007-11-05T13:01:57","modified_gmt":"2007-11-05T18:01:57","slug":"the_first_thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/2007\/11\/05\/the_first_thing\/","title":{"rendered":"The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today in Pakistan, lawyers protested their country’s state of Emergency and were punished for it. Via Bloomberg<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n

Pakistani police charged with clubs and arrested more than 150 lawyers challenging President Pervez Musharraf’s emergency rule as the U.S. said it was reviewing military aid to the country in response to the decree.<\/blockquote>\n\n

\"Rioting<\/a><\/p>\n\n

Police beat lawyers and used tear gas to disperse protesters in cities across Pakistan.<\/strong> Stocks slumped amid speculation that Musharraf was arrested in a coup today, which the military denied, saying it was a rumor.<\/blockquote>\n\n
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in Beijing for talks with the Chinese government, called on Musharraf to restore democratic rule. Musharraf suspended the constitution on Nov. 3 for the second time since he took power in a 1999 military coup, saying judicial interference in government affairs had sparked terrorism and extremism throughout the country<\/strong>.<\/blockquote>\n\n

I’m sure Mushie is just petrified after hearing this from Condi:<\/p>\n\n

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in the West bank city of Ramallah today that Musharraf should restore Pakistan’s democratic institutions “quickly and urgently.” She has said the Bush administration will review its financial aid of more than $1 billion a year<\/strong> to Pakistan.<\/blockquote>\n\n

And props to the UN, for reminding us of the obvious:<\/p>\n\n

“A state of emergency should only be used to deal with a dire security threat to the nation, not to undermine the integrity and independence of the judiciary,<\/strong>” the United Nations High Commissioner Louise Arbour said today in an e-mailed statement.<\/blockquote>\n\n

According to the remainder of the article, the number of detainees is in four digits, court is off-limits to lawyers, Imran Khan has gone underground<\/a>, judges are under house arrest and Pakistanis who are brave enough to lift their voices in protest are being gassed and beaten for doing so.<\/p>\n\n

Citizens and journalists staged a protest outside the Karachi Press Club today, where they wore black armbands and shouted slogans against the government. Heavy contingents of police beat protesters.<\/blockquote>\n\n

::<\/p>\n\n

If you want to read The Emergency Times<\/em>, i.e. what was\/is on pakistanmartiallaw.blogspot.com, go here<\/a>. I’m mirroring the often unavailable blog posts which one of you thoughtfully passed on to me via email, out of solidarity.<\/p>\n\n

Let people know. We Are Resisting. Please Join us.<\/strong><\/blockquote>\n\n

Unity is mutinous.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today in Pakistan, lawyers protested their country’s state of Emergency and were punished for it. Via Bloomberg: Pakistani police charged with clubs and arrested more than 150 lawyers challenging President Pervez Musharraf’s emergency rule as the U.S. said it was … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4842"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4842\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}