Nationwide Student Protest Today!!!

Pakistani students at home and abroad have risen up to fight for their rights. From now on they will be taking their movement outside of their universities, computers, cellphones and into the streets. The statement is attached below. WE STRONGLY URGE LAWYERS, NGOs AND ALL SECTION OF THE CIVIL SOCIETY TO JOIN IN THESE PROTESTS TO SUPPORT THE STUDENTS! Please forward this email to everyone who might be willing to come!

These are only a build up for MASSIVE WORLD WIDE PROTESTS to be held until the country goes back to pre-Nov 2 position (restoration of judges, freedom of media, release of political prisoners, etc). Please contact emergencyinpakistan@gmail.com if you want to hold protest in your cities and want them to be included in the next newsletter!

You are advised to participate in the events and to distribute this to as many people as possible.
Media coverage has been asked for but please do not forget to bring your own cameras. In addition feel free to inform about these events to any media personnel.

Here are the details of the events:

FRIDAY NOV 30th
[Updated]
Islamabad: 3pm, Infront of Holiday Inn (opp Press Club) for Capital talk then join judges and lawyers at 4 30 in front of Marriot to march to CJs house.

Lahore: 2pm, Liberty Chowk Lahore

Karachi: 3pm, Mazar-e-Quaid

Waiting confirmation from other cities in Pakistan.


INTERNATIONAL VENUES:

Nov 30th:

Toronto 3 pm, Queen's Park,Toronto, ON Contact:416.879.7246
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=5935509669

Chicago contact Shahzad ,
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=588342233 or (773) - 817-1689.

Geneva, 3 pm, infront of the UN building. contact Ayesha
http://www.facebook.com/s.php?k=100000080&id=501392142

Oslo, contact Oslo: farukh_qureshi@hotmail.com phone # 004747391608

Boston, contact Saad Rizvi, saadmustafa.rizvi@gmail.com, 857-334-8012

Dec 1:
Orlando, 1 pm, Lake Eola Park, Downtown, Orlando

London, 1 pm , parliament avenue , contact Mutahir--07943005302

New York, 12pm, Infront of UN in Manhattan, NY. 42nd street, and 1st Avenue

Dublin, 1 pm, outside PARLIAMENT HOUSE Marion House,

APDM announces election boycott

The APDM has announced that it will boycott the upcoming elections, in a meeting held in Lahore on Thursday. The Chief of the alliance and leader of the PML-N, Nawaz Sharif said they had decided to stay away as the elections would not be transparent under President Musharraf. He also rejected his televised address in which the lifting of the emergency on Dec 16th was announced.
The alliance has formed two committees for the purpose of persuading Benazir Bhutto and Maulana Fazlur Rehman to join the boycott. Both of the leaders have expressed their willingness to participate in the elections.

(This decision of the APDM must be applauded as a monumental and principled one. The same amount of pressure must be put on the rest of the political parties to join the boycott of these sham elections. Unless and until the judiciary is restored, there must be no compromise.)

In Complete Unity

Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry urges nation to boycott elections

[Courtesty JURIST - jurist.law.pitt.edu] Ousted Pakistani Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry [JURIST news archive] Tuesday urged Pakistan's political parties and people to boycott parliamentary elections scheduled for January 8, saying that they were comprised by being held under unconstitutional emergency rule and should not proceed because Pakistan was in unusual circumstances with the rights of its judges, lawyers and people restricted or suspended. Lahore High Court Bar Association Secretary Sarfraz Cheema Chaudhry said the chief justice talked to him by telephone from his official residence, which he has not been allowed to leave. Chaudhry's boycott call was echoed by retired Supreme Court Justice Wajihuddin Ahmed [Wikipedia profile], an anti-Musharraf candidate in the presidential election in October and one of 17 retired Pakistani judges who Tuesday issued a joint declaration calling for the reinstatement of the constitution and for an end to emergency rule. Pakistan's Dawn has more. The News has additional coverage.

On the President's Oath-taking

Umer

The snake may slough its skin, but it DOES NOT lost its venom. The man with a stick still has a job to do - an unfinished job that he can ignore only at his peril. You know what I mean. Strike the snake dead.

He has changed his skin. No doubt.

But look at the venom – the threat posed to sustainable foundations of good governance in this country. Look at the language: "Kiyani and I will take good care of this country…

The judges, and the ex-Chief Justice were involved in a conspiracy to derail the third phase of democracy… I am honoured by the nation which has put its trust in me"

Not in our name, please. Someone is saying, in the name of the nation, that, after all, it was the judges who were conspiring. Wasn't someone an army officer in his 45 ^th year of service trying to grab the chief civilian post of power. When the case went to the highest court of the land, and it looked as they wouldn't be able to provide constitutional disguise to this blatant mockery of justice, someone put more than half of all the serving higher judiciary of the country in illegal detention, stormed the court premises to pick up thousands of lawyers from within court premises (I saw this with my own eyes in Lahore), filled up the courts with the choicest amongst incompetent imposters. And then the imposters spoke in Law's name what someone had always wanted them to speak, and even though an overwhelming majority of the people spoke against them. And to crown this 'process of justice' someone just shouted his oath taking cue from the whisperings of the chief of puppets, who sounded just so ashamed of himself.

The snake of course, is never ashamed. It knows no course of action other than what it does. It has a nature that cannot be helped. If there is anyone to blame it is the man with the stick, who scares the snake but then backs off taking heart from the snake's new skin leaving his job undone.

Woe to him who thinks that the snake in new skin is safe and even worth honour and appreciation. By the Lord of Heaven and Hell full of smakes, as long as a snake is up and beating, viciously willing to spew venom at innocent victims, no one is safe. The nation is not safe. A job half-done demands completion. Where is the man with the stick? Don't back out now, please.