March 25, 2008 Canadian Pakistanis
Hail Zardari
for 'Master Stroke'
Toronto
Calling Yousaf Raza Gillani's installation as Pakistan premier "a
master stroke" by Asif Ali Zardari, Canadian Pakistanis have urged
President Pervez Musharraf to resign now.
"If he doesn't resign, he should be impeached. The Pakistani people
have rejected him and he should go," Pakistan Peoples Party (Canada)
convener Mansoor Mirza told IANS.
He said: "Zardari has played a master stroke by bringing the two top
parties together to run the country. Till now, the army has made
them fight against each other. For the first time in 60 years,
Pakistan has now got on track to be a democratic society."
PPP (Canada) women's wing president Suraiya Khan said: "The PPP has
saved Pakistan by forging alliances with Nawaz Sharif and appointing
Gillani, a Punjabi, as the country's prime minister. People cannot
say the PPP is the party of Sindhis only."
She added: "Having spent years in jail, both Zardari and Sharif have
matured. Nawaz was Zia ul-Haq's protégé, but he has realized what
army rule means. Pakistan will have the rule of law now."
However, Pakistani human rights activists and journalists in exile
in Canada were not excited by the installation of Gillani.
"The shadow of the army and repressive police system is still on
society. Pakistan will remain unsafe for rights activists and
journalists," said Hamilton Spectator reporter Mohsin Abbas,
speaking for 30-odd Pakistani journalists living in exile in Canada.
Quoting the 2008 report by Reporters Without Borders, he said: "Six
journalists were killed and over 250 - the highest number in Asia -
locked up in Pakistan last year alone.
"I was forced to flee in 2002 for doing an investigative story about
the death of a fellow journalist. They detained and tortured me.
"Later, when the authorities came to know that I am working on a
book titled `Polistan' about the police and press in Pakistan, they
raided my office, and detained and tortured me before I fled."
Abbas, who made headlines last year when he was threatened for
writing on the role of a Pakistani minister in the murder of a
Toronto woman Kafila Siddiqui, said: "I got threatening calls from
Pakistan. And the news agency, which ran my story there, was also
threatened. I am always scared for journalist friends back in
Pakistan."
"Do you think the installation of a PPP-led government will change
things for whistle-blowers," he asked.
The exiled Pakistani, who has appeared as a South Asian analyst on
the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Radio Canada International,
CTV, and Global TV, said: "Pakistan is light years away from
becoming a civil society".
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