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Pakistan police clash with lawyers

LAHORE, Pakistan (CNN) — Wearing black coats and ties, Pakistani lawyers clashed with security forces for a second straight day Tuesday, protesting President Pervez Musharraf’s declaration of a state of emergency that suspended the country’s constitution and shut down the judicial system.

Baton-wielding police fought with lawyers outside courthouses in Islamabad and Lahore, arresting dozens more as they enforced a crackdown that began with Musharraf’s declaration on Saturday.

They’re the educated professional middle class of the country, said Ayesha Tammy Haq, a Pakistani lawyer currently in hiding. And if you want to look at a secular liberal organization, there you have it. There you have these smart people, they’re educated, and they’re being beaten up and dragged off to jail.

Thousands of the nation’s lawyers sat in jails Tuesday — and many judges were under house arrest — while government officials insisted the declaration was necessary to the country’s fight against terrorism and would not derail its slow progress toward democracy.

We want this country to move forward on the path of democracy, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said Tuesday at the Brands of the Year 2006-2007 awards ceremony in Islamabad, according to the state run news agency Associated Press of Pakistan. We want this country to have elections and stand in the comity of nations, where people see Pakistan as a true democracy.

Certain things had to be done, he said. Nobody has any personal agenda, as it is the national agenda which is being pursued.

During a cabinet meeting Tuesday, Aziz said that he and Musharraf believed in the independence of the judiciary and said they had the greatest regard and respect for the judiciary, according to the APP.

Opposition leaders, however — and fired Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudhry — accuse Musharraf’s government of moving to shut down the judiciary just before the Supreme Court was to rule on a challenge to his election to a third term as president.

The United States, Britain and other countries have urged Musharraf to lift the emergency declaration and return to a constitutional government.

While the United States and Britain have said they are reviewing current aid packages with an eye toward possible withdrawal, only the Netherlands has cut off financial aid to Pakistan.

Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto arrived in Islamabad from Karachi Tuesday for meetings with other opposition leaders about how to respond to Musharraf’s declaration.

I don’t think we have time, she told reporters. And I don’t think we should give time. I think we should all come down as strongly as we can for the restoration of democracy.

Crowds of her supporters lined the streets as Bhutto entered the city, waving to them from an open-top car.

Authorities in Punjab province have barred a rally Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party had scheduled for Friday, however. A spokesman for the government said that large public gatherings are generally inadvisable and the political parties should refrain from holding public meetings and rallies.

Bhutto, who is seeking the prime minister’s post in parliamentary elections that had been scheduled for January, said she is no longer talking with Musharraf about any kind of power-sharing deal. But officials from her party said advisors for the two are in touch.

In a telephone call from his home, where he was under house arrest, Chaudhry — who was fired Saturday by Musharraf — urged lawyers to go to every corner of Pakistan and give the message that this is the time to sacrifice.

Later, asked if he had a message for Musharraf, he told CNNI, He should restore the judiciary, which was working independently in this country for the strengthening of the institution of democracy.

Chaudhry, who has been confined to his home since Saturday, said that Musharraf’s declaration of martial law was likely motivated by his belief that the nation’s Supreme Court was preparing to rule his re-election was unconstitutional.

Otherwise, there was no reason, absolutely no reason, to be doing this, he said.

Opposition attorneys had asked the court to rule on their contention that the Pakistani constitution forbids a sitting military leader from running for president.

Musharraf, who is the Pakistani army’s chief of staff as well as the country’s president, had promised to relinquish his ties to the military before Nov. 15, when he is expected to take the oath of office for a third time.

On Tuesday, four new Supreme Court justices were sworn in, replacing those — including Chaudhry — who were sacked on Saturday.

Asked by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer whether he considers Musharraf to be a dictator, Chaudhry said, Yes, of course. Who was the person who was not believing in the independence of the judiciary? In the norms of the law? Not allowing judges to work independently? This is only the habit of a dictator.

Chaudhry, who was reinstated to the court in July after Musharraf fired him for the first time, has issued key rulings that have weakened Musharraf’s grip on power — including lifting the exile imposed on opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, whom Musharraf ousted in a 1999 bloodless coup. When Sharif attempted last month to return to Pakistan, he was ordered back into exile.

He urged that the United Nations pressure Musharraf to rescind his order and said the declaration of martial law would serve only to strengthen the hand of the terrorists.

But Musharraf’s declaration noted a visible ascendancy in the activities of extremists and incidents of terrorist attacks and it blamed a judiciary at cross purposes with his government’s efforts to control this menace.

An attorney for Musharraf and the chief author of the constitution, Ahmed Raza Kasuri, defended Musharraf’s actions.

What was happening was the government was arresting the terrorists, he told CNNI. The courts, dealing in judicial activism, were releasing the terrorists.

He likened the situation in Pakistan to the ceding of powers to U.S. President George W. Bush in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

You can get a hold of anybody and put them behind bars and folks are left with no option but to accept the orders of the executive, he said.

He said Musharraf’s moves had the backing of the vast majority of the silent majority who have not taken to the streets, and he predicted the crisis will soon ease.

You just have to just wait for a few days and everything will be all right, he said. The whole exercise has been done with the view to control terrorism in Pakistan and the region around.

About 3,000 Pakistani lawyers, rounded up since Saturday, sit in jails across the country with no courts operating to which they can seek release, police sources said.

Police earned cash bonuses for beating and arresting hundreds of lawyers who had gathered Monday outside of Lahore’s courthouse, police sources said.

Any lawyer who attempted to enter courthouses in Lahore or Islamabad Tuesday was arrested, witnesses said.

CNN’s Zain Verjee said the lawyers were charged with terrorism offenses, and human rights workers and journalists were also among those arrested.

In addition, television news channels — including CNN and the BBC — were taken off the air, leaving only state-run television.

Journalists were ordered not to criticize Musharraf, other senior members of government or army officials, she said. Penalties included fines and possible jail sentences of up to three years.

Security forces and barriers were visible along the road leading from the airport to the capital, with troops in place around hotels and the residences of the prime minister and the president, she said.
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Ky. governor loses bid for 2nd term; Miss. governor likely to win

(CNN) — Republican Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher lost his bid for a second term Tuesday, while his GOP counterpart in Mississippi, Gov. Haley Barbour, was expected to breeze to victory in the marquee races of the 2007 off-year elections.

With about 76 percent of the precincts reporting in Kentucky, Democrat Steve Beshear was carrying 60 percent of the vote, well ahead of Fletcher at 40 percent, according to results from the state elections board. The Associated Press projected Beshear would win.

Meanwhile, polls have closed in Mississippi, where pre-election opinion surveys put Barbour — mentioned as a GOP vice presidential possibility next year — well ahead of Democrat John Eaves.

In addition to the two gubernatorial races, several mayoral contests were on tap Tuesday, including in San Francisco, where Mayor Gavin Newsom was favored to win a second term despite a messy sex scandal earlier this year that led him to seek treatment for alcohol abuse.

Also, in Utah, voters were deciding whether to approve a school voucher program that would give parents tax dollars to send their children to private schools. The proposal has generated controversy because, rather than targeting low-income students in poor-performing schools, the far-reaching program would be available to families regardless of income or school performance.

When first elected four years ago, Fletcher was Kentucky’s first Republican governor in more than 30 years. But his administration was dogged by an investigation into political interference in state hiring that led to Fletcher’s indictment on three misdemeanor charges.

The charges were later dismissed after Fletcher acknowledged there had been wrongdoing in his administration, but the political damage had been done. His 2003 running mate, Lt. Gov. Steve Pence, refused to run with Fletcher again, and the governor had to survive a primary challenge from former U.S. Rep. Anne Northup.

Beshear, 63, is a former lieutenant governor and state attorney general. His win marks a pickup for Democrats among governorships, offsetting a Republican pickup last month in Louisiana. Overall, Democrats would hold 28 governor’s posts, compared to 22 for Republicans.

In Mississippi, Barbour, 60, was seeking a second term in a state still recovering from the damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Unlike neighboring Louisiana — where Democratic Gov. Kathleen Blanco came under such fire in the aftermath of the storm that she didn’t seek re-election — Barbour’s handling of Katrina bolstered his political prospects.

His Democratic opponent, Eaves, 41, a trial lawyer and born-again Christian, took a litany of socially conservative positions in his campaign, opposing abortion and same-sex marriage and calling for introduction of voluntary school prayer and Biblical literacy classes in schools.

In San Francisco, Newsom, 40, a Democrat, was facing 13 little-known challengers in his bid for re-election as leader of the nation’s 14th largest city. He was favored to win, despite a tsunami of damaging headlines after admitting in February that he had an affair with the wife of his campaign manager.

Newsom later announced he was seeking treatment for an alcohol problem.

Other cities electing mayors Tuesday included Baltimore, Maryland; Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Salt Lake City, Utah.

State legislative elections were also being held Tuesday in Mississippi, New Jersey and Virginia, where Democrats were angling to take control of the State Senate.
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Surgery for girl with eight limbs is going smoothly doctors say

BANGALORE, India (CNN ) — Partway through a mammoth 40-hour operation on a 2-year-old girl born with four arms and four legs, surgeons in India said the procedure is going according to plan, with no problems encountered.

The surgery is going on very well so far, head surgeon Dr. Sharan Patil told CNN. The surgery to separate Lakshmi Tatma from her parasitic twin continues, he said, with a team of some 30 surgeons.

We’ve managed to remove the parasitic twin out of Lakshmi’s body and started reconstructing her pelvic bone. We have managed to get the pelvic bone together.

The little girl, he said, has responded very well. … Everything is going according to plan.

The task began early Tuesday in the southern Indian city of Bangalore and is expected to go on through the night, with surgeons working eight-hour shifts. Watch images of Lakshmi as she prepares for surgery

The conjoined twin stopped developing in the mother’s womb, and has a torso and limbs, but no head. It was joined to Lakshmi at the pelvis.

When Lakshmi was born into a poor, rural Indian family, villagers in the remote settlement of Rampur Kodar Katti in the northern state of Bihar believed she was sacred. As news of her birth spread, locals waited in line for a blessing from the baby.

Her parents, Shambhu and Poonam Tatma, named the girl after the Hindu goddess of wealth who has four arms. However, they were forced to keep her in hiding after they were approached by men offering money in exchange for putting their daughter in a circus.

The couple, who earn just $1 a day as casual laborers, wanted her to have the operation but were unable to pay for the rare procedure, which has never before been performed in India.

After Patil visited the girl in her village from Narayana Health City hospital in Bangalore, the hospital’s foundation agreed to fund the $200,000 operation.

The operation is being conducted by specialists in pediatrics, neurosurgery, orthopedics and plastic surgery. Without it, doctors say, Lakshmi would be unlikely to survive beyond early adolescence.

Planning for the surgery took a month, Patil said, and Lakshmi spent that month in the hospital.

Her parents are being given regular updates but are not allowed to see their daughter during the operation.

We are quite optimistic, Patil told CNN. We do expect that she should be able to walk normally and lead a normal life.

Many villagers, however, remain opposed to surgery and are planning to erect a temple to Lakshmi, who they still revere as sacred.

Patil said Lakshmi’s parents are very practical and knew the risks of the medical treatment. Asked about the belief she is a reincarnation of the goddess, he said, She’s a very charming young girl, and I’m sure she’ll grow up and be something special.
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Pakistan’s courts locked down; Bhutto in Islamabad

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) — Baton-wielding police fought with lawyers outside courthouses in Islamabad and Lahore again Tuesday, arresting dozens more as they enforced Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf’s crackdown on judicial activism.

Three days after Musharraf suspended the constitution and declared a state of emergency, Pakistan’s judicial system is in lockdown, with thousands of lawyers jailed and many judges detained in their homes.

Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto arrived in Islamabad from Karachi on Tuesday for meetings with other opposition leaders about how to respond to Musharraf’s declaration.

I don’t think we have time, and I don’t think we should give time, she told reporters. I think we should all come down as strongly as we can for the restoration of democracy.

In a telephone call, former Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudhry — fired by Musharraf on Saturday — urged a gathering of lawyers to go to every corner of Pakistan and give the message that this is the time to sacrifice. Watch police club and kick lawyers

Asked if he had a message for Musharraf, he told CNN International, He should restore the judiciary, which was working independently in this country for the strengthening of the institution of democracy.

Musharraf’s declaration noted a visible ascendancy in the activities of extremists and incidents of terrorist attacks and it blamed a judiciary that was at cross purposes with his government’s efforts to control this menace.

Opposition leaders, however, suggested the judicial activism Musharraf was really targeting was an expected Supreme Court ruling that would bar him from another term as Pakistan’s president.

About 3,000 Pakistani lawyers, rounded up since Saturday, sit in jails across the country with no courts operating to which they can appeal for release. Pakistan has an estimated 12,000 lawyers.

Police earned cash bonuses for beating and arresting hundreds of lawyers Monday who had gathered outside of Lahore’s courthouse, police sources said.

Any lawyer who attempted to enter the Lahore or Islamabad courthouse Tuesday was immediately arrested, witnesses said. Some were grabbed by police as they walked toward the court, sources said.

CNN’s Zain Verjee said the lawyers were charged with terrorism offenses, and human rights workers and journalists were also arrested.

In addition, television news channels — including CNN and the BBC — were taken off the air, Verjee said.

Journalists were ordered not to criticize Musharraf, other senior members of government or army officials, she said. Penalties included fines and possible jail sentences of up to three years.

Security forces and barriers were visible along the road leading from the airport to the capital, with troops in place around hotels and the residences of the prime minister and the president, Verjee said.

Don’t be afraid of anything, Chaudhry told the lawyers gathered in Islamabad. God will help us and the day will come when you’ll see the constitution supreme and no dictatorship for a long time.

Chaudhry’s remarks were interrupted when Islamabad’s cell phone system suddenly died. There has been no way to confirm the disruption was planned by police.

Chaudhry has been unable to leave his home since it was surrounded by soldiers Saturday night. His house arrest prevents Chaudhry from participating in rallies with lawyers, something he did last March when he was previously sacked by Musharraf.

Chaudhry, who was reinstated to the court in July, has led key rulings that have weakened Musharraf’s grip on power.

Musharraf defends actions

Despite Tuesday’s arrests, the day has been less eventful than Monday, when Pakistani security forces used tear gas and batons on people demonstrating against Musharraf’s declaration.

Washington and London are reviewing their aid packages to Pakistan in light of the state of emergency, which Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has called highly regrettable.

But a senior U.S. administration official said that the issue of aid is a card that has to be played fairly carefully and that the White House wanted to see what transpires in Pakistan over the next few days before making any kind of decision.

President Musharraf is the leader of his country — but, in our judgment, he’s made a mistake, the official said.

Earlier, Bush said he had asked Rice to call Musharraf to deliver the White House’s views.

I asked the secretary to call to convey this message: that we expect there to be elections as soon as possible and that the president should remove his military uniform, he said. Previous to his declaration, we made it clear that these emergency measures would undermine democracy.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said that the declaration of a state of emergency was intended neither to delay elections in mid-January nor to slow the democratic process.

Instead, it was primarily intended to address the extraordinary security situation prevailing in the country.

Pakistan’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Munir Akram, told Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that the state of emergency is limited and that governance is complying as much as possible with the constitution, a U.N. news release said.

An attorney for Musharraf and the chief author of the constitution, Ahmed Raza Kasuri, called Tuesday for judicial restraint.

What was happening was the government was arresting the terrorists, he told CNNI. The courts, dealing in judicial activism, were releasing the terrorists.

He said Musharraf’s moves had the backing of the vast majority who have not taken to the streets, and he predicted the crisis will soon ease.

You just have to just wait for a few days and everything will be all right, he said. The whole exercise has been done with the view to control terrorism in Pakistan and the region around.
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Clinton on debate: ‘I wasn’t my best’

NEWTON, Iowa (CNN) — Democratic presidential front-runner Sen. Hillary Clinton said Tuesday her performance may have been lacking at last week’s presidential debate, but brushed aside criticisms she has not been clear on where she stands on the issues.

I wasn’t at my best the other night, Clinton told CNN’s Candy Crowley. We’ve had a bunch of debates and I wouldn’t rank that up in my very top list.

But I’ve answered probably, I don’t know, more than 5,000 questions over the last 10 months and I have been very clear about where I stand and what I want to do for the country.

Clinton, a New York Democrat, came under intense criticism from her Democratic opponents during and after a debate last Tuesday in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, when she appeared to evade a question about New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s policy of offering driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants. Watch Sen. Clinton outline the specific plans for the country

I understand the necessity for criticism, Clinton said. We’re getting toward the end of a very long presidential primary process.

She refuted the notion her Democratic rivals have teamed up against her because she is the lone woman in the race — as high-profile Clinton supporters Geraldine Ferraro and Eleanor Smeal have suggested.

In a campaign where people are trying to score political points and I am ahead, I am going to be attacked. That’s what happens in campaigns. I don’t have any problem with that. If they are going to use their energy in attacking me, that’s their choice, Clinton said.

In the wide-ranging interview coming a year before Americans will elect their next president, Clinton also beat back criticism she and her husband, former President Clinton, have delayed the release of National Archives documents dealing with their years in the White House.

Their have been a lot of misunderstandings, Clinton said of the issue. Archives takes possession and control of presidential records — they by law actually have to look at every record before its release.

Bill has gone further than any other president ever in saying ’speed up the process, put things out, do it as quickly as possible,’ Clinton added. But they have to follow the law and he’s never ever said we’re not going to put something out.
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