The BBC reports:
Pakistan’s reshaped Supreme Court has dismissed the main legal challenges to Gen Pervez Musharraf being allowed a second term as president.
He has promised to resign as army chief if and when the court validates his victory in October’s presidential poll.Gen Musharraf sacked a number of independently-minded judges who had been due to consider the case.
What to say? Musharraf sacked all the judges who opposed him, so this verdict is utterly meaningless. Most of those judges are still imprisoned. Yet, oddly, the verdict seems to be being accepted by the world powers. I wonder why that is?
Ah, yes. I forgot. The whole “Bestest ally in the War of Terror” thing. How is that working out?
PARACHINAR, Pakistan, Nov 19 (Reuters) – At least a dozen people were killed in fighting between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslim tribesmen in a Pakistani region near the Afghan border on Monday, taking the death toll to more than 100 in four days of clashes.
Eight people were killed and 18 were wounded when a mortar bomb exploded in a bazaar in the Kurram tribal region, residents said.
Army helicopter gunships pounded militant positions on the outskirts of the main town of Parachinar, killing four people.
Note that the Pakistani media are currently banned from reporting on terrorism. Being reported on would just encourage them, apparently. Clearly Musharraf has been sent a handy pamphlet of Republican talking points to turn to for guidance. Meanwhile, the roundup of journalists, opposition politicians, and lawyers, continues apace. I do hope he’s planning on releasing those politicians before the election…