Pakistani liberal opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, after being released from house arrest on Friday, rejected the caretaker government appointed by President Pervez Musharraf to hold general elections in January, says NDTV.
” ‘We do not accept this government. It has committed treason by taking oath under Provincial Constitutional Order (PCO),’ she told reporters hours after she was freed from three days of house arrest in Lahore.
Following the dissolution of the lower house of parliament at the end of its five-year term late on Thursday, Musharraf on Friday swore in a new cabinet headed by the chairman of the upper house, Mohammedmian Soomro. Regarded as a loyal supporter of the military ruler, Soomro will oversee scheduled polls that Musharraf says will be held in the first week of January.
” ‘We demand that Musharraf take off his uniform. We want to see a neutral caretaker government which is acceptable for all opposition parties,’ Bhutto said, adding that only such a government could ensure fair elections.
“The PCO is the decree through which Musharraf, an army general who took power in a 1999 coup, imposed the state of emergency, suspending the constitution and taking several news channels off the air.”
Meanwhile hundreds of lawyers in Washington participated in a march in support of their colleagues in Pakistan on Wednesday, condemning President Pervez Musharraf’s suspension of the constitution, reports The Washingon Post.
” ‘We have witnessed a brutal attack on the rule of law,’ William Neukom, president of the American Bar Association, told the crowd, which marched two blocks from Independence Avenue to the Supreme Court. ‘We are here because we cannot forget the images of hundreds of our brave colleagues assaulted in the streets, carried off in police trucks’.”
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Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.