Pakistan – politics, religion, cricket & food

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By Ann Coulter

If Republicans end up with a divided convention between Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani, I say we pick Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

Musharraf has declared emergency rule in Pakistan, shut down the media and sent Supreme Court justices home. What’s not to like about a guy who orders policemen to beat up lawyers? I bet he has a good plan on illegal immigration, too.

The entire history of Pakistan is this: There are lots of crazy people living there, they have nuclear weapons, and any Pakistani leader who prevents the crazies from getting the nukes is George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison all rolled into one.

We didn’t hear much about Musharraf — save for B. Hussein Obama’s threat to bomb Pakistan without informing Musharraf — until the last few weeks.

Musharraf has been a crucial ally of ours since Sept. 12, 2001. His loyal friendship to the United States while governing a country that is loyal to al-Qaida might prove dispiriting to the terrorists. So, until recently, the media mostly confined stories about Musharraf to page A-18.

Now, with the surge in Iraq working, Democrats are completely demoralized. Al-Qaida was counting on them. (We know the surge in Iraq is working because it is no longer front page news.)

In a tape released in early September, Osama bin Laden bitterly complained, “You elected the Democratic Party for this purpose” — of ending the war in Iraq –- “but the Democrats haven’t made a move worth mentioning.”

It isn’t enough for the media to drop all mentions of the surge or to subsidize ads denouncing Gen. David Petraeus as “General Betray Us.” (He is betraying liberals by winning the war for America, the enemy of liberals.) They need to stir up trouble for the U.S. someplace else in the world.

On Sept. 20, Osama bin Laden cued liberals by issuing another tape demanding Musharraf’s ouster. The Democrats and the media quickly followed suit.

Weeks later, The New York Times editorial page called on “masses of Pakistanis” to participate in “peaceful demonstrations” against Musharraf, which would be like calling on masses of Pakistanis to engage in daily bathing (The New York Times editorial page being the most effective way to communicate with the Pakistani masses). Most of the editorial was a mash note to that troublesome woman Benazir Bhutto for demanding democracy in the land of the deranged.

Media darling Bhutto returned to Pakistan after fleeing the country following her conviction for corruption as prime minister. Her conviction was later overturned by the corrupt Pakistani Supreme Court, leaving me to ponder, which is worse: being convicted of corruption in a Pakistani court or being exonerated of corruption in a Pakistani court? She was again convicted in a Swiss court of money laundering.

The media adore Bhutto because she went to Harvard and Oxford, which I consider two more strikes against her. A degree from Harvard is prima facie evidence that she’s on the side of the terrorists. I note that Bhutto demonstrates her own deep commitment to democracy by giving herself the title “chairperson for life” of the Pakistan Peoples Party.

Liberals hysterically opposed our imposing a democracy on Iraq and despise Nouri al-Maliki, the democratically elected leader of Iraq. Say, has Maliki ever been convicted in a Swiss court of money laundering?

Compared to Pakistan, imposing democracy in Iraq is like imposing democracy in Darien, Conn. But in Iraq, liberals prefer an anti-American dictator, like Saddam Hussein. Only in Pakistan do liberals yearn for pure democracy.

You wouldn’t know it to read the headlines, but Musharraf has not staged a military coup. In fact, he was re-elected — in a landslide — just weeks ago under Pakistan’s own parliamentary system.

But the Pakistani Supreme Court, like our own Supreme Court, believes it is above the president and refused to acknowledge Musharraf’s election on the grounds that he is disqualified because he is still wearing a military uniform. That’s when Musharraf sent them home.

Musharraf’s election was certainly more legitimate than that of Syrian president Bashar Assad (with whom every leading Democrat has had a photo-op) or Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (adjunct professor at Columbia University) or Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez (loon).

Where were the headlines like this week’s Economist’s (“Time’s up, Mr. Musharraf”) about those lovable rogues? They hate America, so they can stay.

The last time liberals were this enthusiastic about popular rule in some Third World country was in 1979, when they were gushing about Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in Iran. Professor Richard Falk of Princeton University assured liberals in a 1979 New York Times op-ed that the “depiction of Khomeini as fanatical, reactionary, and the bearer of crude prejudices seems certainly and happily false.”

I’m no clock-watcher, but it’s been 28 years; I don’t think Falk is going to be issuing an apology.

Falk cheerfully concluded that the fanatical Muslim leaders in Iran “may yet provide us with a desperately needed model of humane government for a Third World country.”

And just look at all the wonderful things Khomeini did for Iran!

How might popular rule turn out in Pakistan? As Saul Bellow rhetorically said of multiculturalism, “Who is the Tolstoy of the Zulus?”

Pakistan is a country where local Islamic courts order women to be raped as punishment for the crimes of their male relatives. Among the Islamists’ bill of particulars against Musharraf is the fact that he has promoted the Women’s Protection Bill, which would punish rape, rather than using it as a device for social control.

According to The Boston Globe, the most common form of homosexuality in Pakistan –- punishable by death –- is pederasty.

Pakistan doesn’t need Adlai Stevenson right now. It needs Mustafa Kemal Ataturk to impose military rule and drag a country of Islamic savages into the 19th century, as Ataturk did in Turkey. Pakistan’s Ataturk is Gen. Musharraf.

To try to force democracy on the differing “I hate America” factions in Pakistan at this stage would be worse than Jimmy Carter’s abandonment of the Shah in 1979. It would result in what former assistant secretary of state Edward Djerejian called: “one man, one vote, one time.”

The difference is: Instead of scimitars, this den of al-Qaida-supporting pederasts will have nukes.

Daily Mail 

Jemima Khan has revealed how she had to tell her two young boys their father had been arrested – and could be executed after being charged with terror offences.

The millionaire socialite, who was married to former cricketer Imran Khan for nine years, told how she had first attempted to joke about her ex-husband’s detention to reassure them.

But she said it became harder to laugh after it emerged he could face the death penalty or life imprisonment. 

Imran, the leader of a small but very vocal opposition group, was arrested by Pakistani police earlier this week after appearing at a student protest against the imposition of emergency rule by the country’s leader General Pervez Musharraf.

Since then, Pakistan has dismissed a call by a top American diplomat for an end to emergency rule and freeing of thousands of political opponents.

Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte issued a blunt warning to Musharaff to restore the constitution, but his foreign minister told reporters there was “nothing new” coming from Washington and no real assurances.

Writing in today’s Sunday Telegraph, Jemima Khan said: “When I told my children that their father had been arrested I tried to make light of it, joking that to get anywhere in Pakistani politics, a stint inside is mandatory.”

“Then I heard that he had been charged with ’state terrorism’ and that if convicted he faces the death penalty or life imprisonment.

“It was harder to muster up a laugh, even for their benefit.

“The latest news is that he was shifted, in handcuffs, to a high-security jail in Dera Ghazi Khan, Interior Punjab.

“His crime? Criticising President Pervez Musharraf and attempting to address a peaceful student protest at Punjab University.

“For that he was first beaten – according to reports – and then carted off to Kot Lakhpat jail. His supporters were also beaten, arrested and several have broken bones.”

Jemima, who has two boys Sulaiman and Kasim, went on to attack the Pakistan leader General Pervez Musharraf, who ordered emergency rule earlier this month, claiming he was “the most repressive leader in the country’s history.”

She went on to reveal that Imran’s three sisters had also been arrested – as has his elderly aunt and several female cousins.

“Many of them have small children at home and husbands who are already in jail,” she said. “I watched footage of the women that I lived with for five years being dragged across the ground screaming.

“Other friends of mine recently arrested include my children’s teacher, a housewife and a journalist, not to mention the hundreds from Imran’s political party.”

” …The jails are so full, they are holding people in police stations. There are reports of torture and beatings within the jails. And those that have been arrested have not been allowed access to lawyers or visitors.”

She described the situation as a personal vendetta for Musharraf and that in claiming to fight terror, he had “terrorised an entire nation.”

“Musharraf is still viewed by the West as an important ally in the “War on Terror”, she said. “But, despite billions of pounds worth of Western aid, Osama bin Laden has not been captured, the Taliban are resurgent and the extremist elements in Pakistan are more active than ever.”

Later in the day she joined hordes of protesters outside the Pakistan High Commission in London to call for an end to the state of emergency and the release of all political prisoners.

About 150 noisy demonstrators gathered calling for “Democracy”, “Revolution”, and for the General to stand down.

Jemima, 33, stood at the heart of the demonstration with the youngest of her two boys, Kasim.

The eight-year-old held a picture of his father with the words “Release Imran. Release my Aba” – meaning father.

Jemima received a message from her former husband yesterday, which was smuggled out of the jail where he is being held, to tell their other son, Sulaiman, 11, that he was thinking of him on the boy’s birthday.

She also handed a petition to the High Commission alongside Supreme Court lawyer Hina Jilani and Dr Aamer Sarfraz.

Speaking to the media, she said: “I think it is time for Musharraf to resign.

“It’s gone too far, he needs to go, but there are other things we are calling for: for the judiciary to be restored, for the press to be freed, for the conditions of democracy to be restored, for all political prisoners to be released, and for the right to protest.

“We have to protest here because our friends in Pakistan are being arrested for protesting in Pakistan..

“I’m doing this because Imran and my friends in Pakistan have asked us to make noise here because they are not able to in Pakistan, but I am doing it because I care about Pakistan and I care about the issue of democracy and human rights.”

She said she visited Pakistan regularly with her children and had been involved in the relief effort after the earthquake.

Jemima called for the Government to continue putting pressure on the General, saying: “I think that pressure does work and I think that demonstrations do have an effect but Musharraf seems to be impervious at the moment.”

She said her ex-husband’s sisters, his female cousins, and an elderly aunt had been arrested when they protested outside the prison in Pakistan, with the aunt being “dragged across the floor and thrown into a police van”.

“It is brutality that we have never seen before in Pakistan.” she said.

“We’re all worried, my sons are worried, I’m worried, my family are worried, his family in Pakistan are worried.”

She said that unfortunately she had not been able to speak directly with Imran since his detainment.

Fatima Bhutto – LA Times

We Pakistanis live in uncertain times. Emergency rule has been imposed for the 13th time in our short 60-year history. Thousands of lawyers have been arrested, some charged with sedition and treason; the chief justice has been deposed; and a draconian media law — shutting down all private news channels — has been drafted.

Perhaps the most bizarre part of this circus has been the hijacking of the democratic cause by my aunt, the twice-disgraced former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto. While she was hashing out a deal to share power with Gen. Pervez Musharraf last month, she repeatedly insisted that without her, democracy in Pakistan would be a lost cause. Now that the situation has changed, she’s saying that she wants Musharraf to step down and that she’d like to make a deal with his opponents — but still, she says, she’s the savior of democracy.

The reality, however, is that there is no one better placed to benefit from emergency rule than she is. Along with the leaders of prominent Islamic parties, she has been spared the violent retributions of emergency law. Yes, she now appears to be facing seven days of house arrest, but what does that really mean? While she was supposedly under house arrest at her Islamabad residence last week, 50 or so of her party members were comfortably allowed to join her. She addressed the media twice from her garden, protected by police given to her by the state, and was not reprimanded for holding a news conference. (By contrast, the very suggestion that they might hold a news conference has placed hundreds of other political activists under real arrest, in real jails.)

Ms. Bhutto’s political posturing is sheer pantomime. Her negotiations with the military and her unseemly willingness until just a few days ago to take part in Musharraf’s regime have signaled once and for all to the growing legions of fundamentalists across South Asia that democracy is just a guise for dictatorship.

It is widely believed that Ms. Bhutto lost both her governments on grounds of massive corruption. She and her husband, a man who came to be known in Pakistan as “Mr. 10%,” have been accused of stealing more than $1 billion from Pakistan’s treasury. She is appealing a money-laundering conviction by the Swiss courts involving about $11 million. Corruption cases in Britain and Spain are ongoing.

It was particularly unappealing of Ms. Bhutto to ask Musharraf to bypass the courts and drop the many corruption cases that still face her in Pakistan. He agreed, creating the odiously titled National Reconciliation Ordinance in order to do so. Her collaboration with him was so unsubtle that people on the streets are now calling her party, the Pakistan People’s Party, the Pervez People’s Party. Now she might like to distance herself, but it’s too late.

Why did Ms. Bhutto and her party cronies demand that her corruption cases be dropped, but not demand that the cases of activists jailed during the brutal regime of dictator Zia ul-Haq (from 1977 to 1988) not be quashed? What about the sanctity of the law? When her brother Mir Murtaza Bhutto — my father — returned to Pakistan in 1993, he faced 99 cases against him that had been brought by Zia’s military government. The cases all carried the death penalty. Yet even though his sister was serving as prime minister, he did not ask her to drop the cases. He returned, was arrested at the airport and spent the remaining years of his life clearing his name, legally and with confidence, in the courts of Pakistan.

Ms. Bhutto’s repeated promises to end fundamentalism and terrorism in Pakistan strain credulity because, after all, the Taliban government that ran Afghanistan was recognized by Pakistan under her last government — making Pakistan one of only three governments in the world to do so.

And I am suspicious of her talk of ensuring peace. My father was a member of Parliament and a vocal critic of his sister’s politics. He was killed outside our home in 1996 in a carefully planned police assassination while she was prime minister. There were 70 to 100 policemen at the scene, all the streetlights had been shut off and the roads were cordoned off. Six men were killed with my father. They were shot at point-blank range, suffered multiple bullet wounds and were left to bleed on the streets.

My father was Benazir’s younger brother. To this day, her role in his assassination has never been adequately answered, although the tribunal convened after his death under the leadership of three respected judges concluded that it could not have taken place without approval from a “much higher” political authority.

I have personal reasons to fear the danger that Ms. Bhutto’s presence in Pakistan brings, but I am not alone. The Islamists are waiting at the gate. They have been waiting for confirmation that the reforms for which the Pakistani people have been struggling have been a farce, propped up by the White House. Since Musharraf seized power in 1999, there has been an earnest grass-roots movement for democratic reform. The last thing we need is to be tied to a neocon agenda through a puppet “democrat” like Ms. Bhutto.

By supporting Ms. Bhutto, who talks of democracy while asking to be brought to power by a military dictator, the only thing that will be accomplished is the death of the nascent secular democratic movement in my country. Democratization will forever be de-legitimized, and our progress in enacting true reforms will be quashed. We Pakistanis are certain of this.

Fatima Bhutto is a Pakistani poet and writer. She is the daughter of Mir Murtaza Bhutto, who was killed in 1996 in Karachi when his sister, Benazir, was prime minister.

Marco Liconti  – AKI

The clash between Pakistan’s President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto during the country’s current state of emergency is a “farce”, according to Bhutto’s niece, Fatima.

In an exclusive interview with Adnkronos International (AKI), Fatima Bhutto accused her aunt, who heads the largest opposition party, the Pakistan People’s Party, of “cynicism” and wanting “to sell out the country to the United States”.

Speaking by telephone from Karachi, the 25-year-old niece launched a scathing attack on the former leader and accused her of returning home to Pakistan “not to serve the interests of the people, but to chase power”.

“She has certainly not returned to Pakistan to spearhead political reform,” she said.

The young woman said the current crisis had degenerated into a war between two people, Musharraf and Benazir, who were losing sight of the real issues facing the country.

Bhutto said Benazir had come to an agreement with the president “because she wanted to please public opinion”.

But she claimed they would both find a way to “maintain the status quo” and “extend their own respective power”, excluding the only other leader with any clout, exiled former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

As for Benazir’s house arrest, revoked on Thursday, the young Bhutto described it as a joke.

“Have you ever seen anyone placed under house arrest released continually for interviews and even receive an American consul?” she said.

The young Bhutto, a poet and writer, is actively involved in politics beside her stepmother Ghinwa Bhutto, plans to stand as a candidate for the breakaway Pakistan People’s Party Shaheed Bhutto (PPP-SB), which supports a return to Pakistan’s liberal Constitution of 1973.

Fatima Bhutto is the daughter of the late Murtaza Bhutto, who was killed by police in 1996 in Karachi during the premiership of his sister, Benazir Bhutto. She is grand-daughter of Pakistan’s former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

During her interview with Adnkronos International, Fatima blamed her aunt for the death of her father.

“The second term of Benazir was characterised by several acts of state violence against opponents,” said Bhutto.

She accused Bhutto of “creating the conditions for the violence in which he (her father) was a victim” and of also being responsible for the cover up at the inquest.

Bhutto accused of Musharraf of failing to live up to his promises while her aunt had simply given “new strength to the fundamentalists” in Pakistan.

She also called for the US alliance to be renegotiated in a way that gave Pakistan greater parity.

Fatima’s mother, Ghinwa Bhutto, is the chairperson of the PPP-SB. The Lebanese widow of Murtaza Bhutto, she has staked claim to her share of the Bhutto political legacy.

Source: CNN

Two Pakistani television networks that transmit from Dubai in United Arab Emirates were ordered off the air Friday at the request of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, officials from the networks told CNN.

GEO-TV and ARY Digital both offer a variety of programming, including news, entertainment, sports and music.

Since Musharraf declared a state of emergency earlier this month, Pakistani authorities have shut down media outlets and jailed opposition leaders.

Musharraf has said the order improves stability and will foster peaceful parliamentary elections, which he has said he would like to see take place before January 9.

The exact date will be set by Pakistan’s Election Commission.

Opposition leaders have accused Musharraf of declaring emergency rule to keep his hold on power and avoid an expected court ruling that would have nullified his election victory in

Every empire has a downfall. The same can be said about rulers of Pakistan. From Liaquat Ali Khan to Ayub Khan to Bhutto to Zia to the democratically “elected” Nawaz and Benazir and finally to Musharraf. Musharraf’s downfall began earlier this year when he sacked the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. Since then, it has been a downward spiral.

 This year has been important in defining who is who of Pakistan politics. We have seen the likes of Sheikh Rasheed and the Chudhries – proving themselves to be opportunists of the worst kind. If America were to invade Pakistan tomorrow, these people will be their willing ministers and executioners. Then we have the Sharif “bradraan”. Another bunch who tried to come back to Pakistan to exploit the situation, probably dreaming about being handed over the throne. Musharraf got the better of them. Jamat-e-Islami showed its true colors by handing over Imran to the police. The Jamaat with all it’s Qazi Hussains and the Fazloos have been puppets of the Army – from Zia’s time. No surprises there.

 Benazir Bhutto on the other hand is in a league of her own. She has to be the most shrewd politician in Pakistan. Her are the likes that I like to call “professional” politicians. Their sole purpose for coming in to politics is not to serve the people or the country, but to become rich. Convicted by Spanish and Swiss courts for money laundering, the BB walk around the country with what we Pakistanis like to call “dhitai” – shamelessness. Her coming back and reconciling with Musharraf was the biggest sign that America has given it’s blessings to this unholy union. Musharraf, it seems, was not too happy with this.

Benazir is now saying that she will not accept Musharraf in any situation. The only reason that BB can take this stand has to come in the form of assurances from America. Otherwise, taking on Musharraf – a military dictator – just on the basis of “awami” support is not something BB can do. That requires balls. And BB has none – literally.

Musharraf is in a tight corner now – the only thing that can save him is the creation of an environment that will convince America that Musharraf is needed at the top to fight these “extremists”. I think we should all be ready for another round of bombing in the northern areas.

In my estimate, Musharraf’s days are numbered – America has already given BB assurances of power, and that can’t happen with Musharraf in power. After all, BB is no Shaukat Aziz.

Students at the Punjab University have begun to vent their rage against the Islami Jamiat-e-Tuleba (IJT) over their role in undermining Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf Chairman Imran Khan. 

On November 14 as Chairman Khan emerged from hiding to address the students of the Punjab University to spark a movement where the young would begin to lead the change in Pakistan.  Unexpectedly, the IJT manhandled and kidnapped Chairman Khan before handing him over to the police.  The Islami Jamiat-e-Tuleba also beat up Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf workers who were accompanying Chairman Khan. 

In retaliation over the role of IJT, the Punjab University students ransacked the offices of the militant IJT.  The students of Punjab University feel betrayed by the IJT’s role in trying to subvert the increasing opposition to General Musharaf’s rule.  Chairman Khan is unanimously seen as a hero by the young both when he was on the cricket pitch and today in the political arena. 

The student protests against the IJT were so strong that one of the IJT leaders is said to have quit.  Other IJT leaders and workers have been beaten up by the enraged campus.

By Bruce Loudon – The Australian 

FORMER Pakistan cricket captain Imran Khan was facing the prospect of a long prison term last night after being shifted from police custody to one of the country’s most notorious jails.

Mr Khan, 55, leader of the small Tehrik-in-Insaaf (Justice) party and an outspoken critic of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, was taken under heavy guard to the Kot Lakhpat jail on the outskirts of Lahore.

The move came as Attorney-General Malik Mohammad Qayyum announced last night General Musharraf would stand down as army chief before December 1.

General Musharraf and other officials had said he would wait for the Supreme Court to rule on the legality of his October 6 re-election as president before quitting the army.

Kot Lakhpat has for decades been one of Pakistan’s most feared jails and has frequently been used by military rulers to imprison their opponents. It was where former prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, father of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, was incarcerated after he was overthrown by General Mohammed Zia-ul Haq.

According to sources, Mr Khan, who was seized by police outside the Punjab University on Tuesday, was told last night that he faced charges under Pakistan’s Anti-Terrorism Act. The act stipulates a possible prison term of between seven years and life.

Lahore’s police chief, Malik Mohammed Iqbal, said yesterday Mr Khan was being charged for inciting people to take up arms, calling for civil disobedience and “spreading hatred”. Mr Khan’s former wife, Jemima, was quoted yesterday as saying that his arrest was a further sign that General Musharraf had become “one of Pakistan’s most brutal and oppressive dictators ever”.

When the state of emergency was declared, and before he went into hiding, Mr Khan called for General Musharraf to be put on trial for violating the constitution. He also called for him to be executed.

Mr Khan was put under house arrest as the emergency was declared, but managed to escape his captors and go into hiding.

Later he issued a video denouncing General Musharraf, and his intention on Tuesday was to go to the Punjab University to start what he said would be a student-led agitation against the military regime. Instead, hardline Islamic students helped police to arrest him at the gates.

Mr Khan was bundled into a van and driven away to a police station before being taken to Kot Lakhpat last night.

Unlike most of the thousands of others who have been detained in Pakistan since the emergency was declared, Mr Khan is not being held under the country’s 90-day detention law but the far more severe Anti-Terrorism Act.

This means he can be held indefinitely without any recourse to the courts.

Mr Khan’s move to Kot Lakhpat came after General Musharraf set himself on a collision course with the US yesterday, defying intense pressure from the White House to lift the state of emergency before elections are held.

A protest by supporters of Ms Bhutto against her house arrest ended with the deaths of two boys, who were killed when gunfire erupted.

The protest deaths were the first since the state of emergency was imposed on November 3.

Police said a demonstrator opened fire but a Bhutto party spokesman denied the claim.

“We do not believe in gun culture,” Ijaz Durrani said. “Our people were peaceful, they never indulge in such incidents.”

Ms Bhutto said last night she hoped to form a government of national unity to replace General Musharraf before elections, and is contacting other opposition parties to get them on board.

“I am talking to the other opposition parties to find out whether they are in a position to come together,” she said from her home in Lahore.

LAHORE: Students of several educational institutions slammed the Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT) for detaining and manhandling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan. They termed it the worst example of hypocrisy because the IJT had itself invited Khan to lead the students in their protest on the Punjab University (PU) campus. The students also criticised the misbehaviour of IJT workers with foreign journalists and the victimisation of several students in their protest rally. Ali Natiq, a student of FAST-NU, said, “We strongly condemn the IJT for beating a national hero.” Amal Azhar, a student of the PU’s Institute of Communication Studies (ICS), said IJT high-ups were hypocrites.She said that female students had gone there to support Imran Khan. A LUMS student, who was present at the PU for the rally, said the LUMS students were protesting against the emergency and for the restoration of human rights in the country. She said the PTI chief had inspired the LUMS students to stand up for their rights. She said, “The IJT humiliated our leader and we condemn it for this.” She said the students would not involve the IJT in their protests again. Naveed Alam, a PU student, said IJT workers had misbehaved with him because he was shouting slogans in Khan’s favour. He said the IJT had humiliated the PU in the presence of many students, who had come from other institutions.

By Kim Sengupta and Andrew Buncombe – The Independent

Imran Khan, the Pakistani opposition leader and former cricketer, was arrested yesterday, less than 48 hours after sending a desperate text message to his solicitor saying that he feared for his life.

Mr Khan had emerged after 11 days in hiding, having gone on the run to escape arrest in the aftermath of General Musharraf’s declaration of emergency on 3 November. Until he was detained by police yesterday lunchtime, he was the last major political opponent of the general still not arrested or under detention. He was charged under Pakistan’s Anti-Terrorism Act, which includes penalties that can carry the death sentence or life imprisonment.

However, Mr Khan had earlier expressed his grave concern for his security in a text message sent to his lawyer in the UK, in which he warned that failure by British authorities to prosecute a key London-based ally of General Musharraf, Altaf Hussain, could lead to lethal repercussions. His message to his lawyer, also named Imran Khan, suggested another possible cause for his arrest.

Mr Hussain, the leader of the MQM party, has been accused of a range of criminal acts, including soliciting murder and inciting violence. A dossier compiled by Mr Khan, the London solicitor and human rights campaigner, on behalf of his namesake has been handed over to Scotland Yard and an investigation is now under way into allegations of money laundering.

In the text message, seen by The Independent, Imran Khan says: “Once MQM [Mr Hussain] thinks he is safe then my Karachi workers and my own life will be at great risk.”

Members of the MQM are said to work alongside the security forces and friends and colleagues of Mr Khan the politician say they fear for his safety because of his campaign against Altaf Hussain.

Mr Khan travelled to London in the summer to press for the prosecution of Altaf Hussain under the UK’s anti-terror laws after gunmen opened fire on supporters of Pakistan’s sacked Chief Justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, sparking a day of violence in May in which 42 people were killed.

Members of the security forces are said to have stood by allowing MQM members to open fire. Mr Khan – along with opposition parties, lawyers, and human rights activists and journalists – accused Mr Hussain of orchestrating the violence from London. The MQM denied the accusations. Mr Hussain claimed at the time “it was a completely peaceful gathering by MQM supporters that was targeted by a collaboration of three other parties”.

Mr Hussain, 53, left Pakistan for Britain in 1992 after an arrest warrant was issued in connection with a murder. The chief justice is reported to have said that he would pursue the murder charge against Mr Hussain if he ever returned to Pakistan.

Following General Musharraf’s announcement that the state of emergency would not be lifted prior to elections being held, Mr Hussain said in a statement from his offices in north-west London that all parties “should support the present government and President General Pervez Musharraf so that the emergency can be lifted, constitution could be restored and elections could be held on schedule. I pay tributes to President General Pervez Musharraf on making courageous and positive announcements.”

Just before his arrest, Imran Khan criticised British authorities for being slow in investigating Mr Hussain and maintained this may have been due to government interference. The Independent revealed that the British Government had liaised with Mr Hussain in an attempt to ensure the safety of Benazir Bhutto when she returned to Pakistan from exile to take part in elections which the general says will proceed on schedule in January, but under the state of emergency.

In a statement he said: “My legal team presented evidence to Scotland Yard in September 2007 regarding Altaf Hussain’s criminal activities … I am very disappointed that over six weeks have gone by and although my lawyers have been keeping in contact with Scotland Yard, a decision has still not been arrived at…

“I sincerely hope that the British government does not unduly influence Scotland yard … Altaf Hussain happens to be someone that President Musharraf regards as an ally in his dictatorship in Pakistan.”

Imran Khan, the solicitor, said: “There is genuine worry about the safety of my client and he is in real fear. The MQM people knows of his campaign and the information which has been passed on to the police and we know that MQM are allies of General Musharraf … Failure to prosecute Altaf Hussain means that MQM members in Pakistan will think that he is untouchable and that will give them more confidence to act against their opponents like Imran Khan and other opposition leaders.”