The big news story to start off the week comes from Pakistan, where the (now former) president Pervez Musharraf has just announced his resignation. Among the highlights from around the blogosphere:
- “The Law Minister, Farooq H Naek said that the resignation of President Musharraf would ensure the supremacy of the parliament and rule of law and democracy in the country. He said it is the materialization of the sacrifices of PPP leader Benazir Bhutto and others who struggled for democracy. About restoration of judiciary, Law Minister said the coalition parties would decide the modalities about the reinstatement of the deposed judges.” – from What Pakistani Politicians say about resignation, at the Pakistan Times
- " ‘The most effective weapon against terror, is the broad mass of people of a given country who have enforceable rights,’ said [Aitzaz] Ahsan at the NYCBA gathering, explaining that Pakistan could not move forward until it regained an independent judiciary. ‘You deprive them of enforceable rights, and you deprive them of recourse to justice, and they will fall into the more corrupt, criminal justice that the extremists are ready to provide.’ At the time, Ahsan called for Musharraf’s resignation, branding him the most ‘unpopular’ and ‘hated’ man in Pakistan." – from After Musharraf’s resignation, what’s next for Pakistan’s judiciary?, at the WSJ Law Blog
- “When Musharraf imposed martial law on November 3, 2007, he dismissed dozens of high court and Supreme Court judges and placed many of them under house arrest with their families. He also detained hundreds of lawyers and other activists, suspended fundamental rights protected in the Pakistani constitution, and placed restrictions on the media. He replaced the deposed judges with handpicked loyalists who agreed to swear an oath of office under the provisional orders imposing martial law.” – from Pakistan’s leaders must dismantle Musharraf’s legacy – political opinion, at Human Rights First via Net News Publisher
- “Earlier this month, the coalition government said that it would push to impeach Musharraf because had given a ‘clear commitment’ to step down from office after his party was defeated in parliamentary elections, but subsequently refused to resign or go into exile, and because be had failed to follow through on a promise to ask parliament for a confidence vote. In June, the PML-N called for Musharraf’s impeachment and released a ‘charge sheet’ outlining misuse of presidential authority, including the dismissal of the country’s superior court judges.” – from
Musharraf resigning Pakistan presidency to avoid impeachment at JURIST Paper Chase - “As Reuters reports, Musharraf’s resignation appears to be a repeat of our own “national nightmare” stage-show, when Nixon resigned in exchange for a full pardon. Justice will be, it seems, absent for the crimes committed by Musharraf and his regime. The question is, however, given the amount of black-market arms deals he has helped engineer, the amount of support Al Qaeda has gotten, and the amount of power the ISI still has, if the person to replace Musharraf will be the same or worse? I don’t know, that is my concern." – from Round-up of reactions to Musharraf’s resignation…, at At-Largely