Little English-Language Blog Reporting on Pakistani Martial Law Arrests

Following Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's suspension of the country's 1973 Constitution and dissolution of the Supreme Court, Musharraf began mass "preventative" arrests of lawyers, opposition group members and human rights activists and shut down a wide array of private cable channels, leaving only the government-run television channel on the air. As of Monday, newspapers were largely uncensored.

The internet also remains uncensored, but THREAT LEVEL's quick survey of English-language Pakistani blogs turned up little in the way of new reporting, other than some details on a foiled protest outside Karachi's press club. The other post of note is a posted email from Asma Jahangir, the Secretary General of the Human Rights Commission Pakistan, who reportedly wrote:

The situation in the country is uncertain. There is a strong crackdown on the press and lawyers. Majority of the judges of the Supreme Court and four High Courts have not taken oath. The Chief Justice is under house arrest (unofficially). The President of the Supreme Court Bar (Aitzaz Ahsan) and 2 former presidents, Mr. Muneer Malik and Tariq Mahmood have been imprisoned for one month under the Preventive Detention laws. The resident of the Lahore High Court Mr. Ahsan Bhoon and former bar leader Mr. Ali Ahmed Kurd have also been arrested. The police is looking or 6 other lawyers, including President of Peshawar and Karachi bar. The President of Lahore bar is also in hiding. There are other scores political leaders who have also been arrested. Yesterday I was house arrested for 90 days. I am sending my detention order (please see below):

Ironically the President (who has lost his marbles) said that he had to clamp down on the press and the judiciary to curb terrorism. Those he has arrested are progressive, secular minded people while the terrorists are offered negotiations and ceasefires. Lawyers and civil society will challenge the government and the scene is likely to get uglier.We want friends of Pakistan to urge the US administration to stop all support of the instable dictator, as his lust for power is bringing the country close to a worse form of civil strife. It is not time for the international community to insist on preventive measures, otherwise cleaning up the mess may take decades. There are already several hundred IDPs and the space for civil society has hopelessly shrunk.

The best online English news source for the situation seems to be Dawn.com, the online edition of a popular English language newspaper. Other good resources include the aggregation at BuzzVines, the reporting at Teeth Maestro, and the Karachi Metroblog.

There is also an online petition calling for the restoration of the Constitution and a Facebook group aimed at the same.

I'm sure that I've missed some reporting out there, so drop a note in the comments if there are other good sources, and I'll add them to the page.

Photo: Adeel Rafiq