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freedom by dictat .....
Tens of thousands of troops are fanning out across Pakistan in an effort to improve security before next week's parliamentary elections. VOA Correspondent Meredith Buel reports from Islamabad that security forces are also searching for Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan, who disappeared while traveling by road through a volatile tribal region.
Interior Ministry spokesman Jawed Iqbal Cheema says Pakistani troops are mobilizing and moving nationwide to provide security during the election. Cheema says the soldiers will not be stationed at the more than 64,000 polling stations across Pakistan.
He says local police will provide front-line security for voters on Election Day, February 18.
"All these arrangements have been made to insure that people cast their vote without any fear in an environment of peace and order," he said. "Nobody will be allowed to disrupt the polling process or create any law and order situation. Anyone trying to hinder the process shall be dealt with very sternly."- By John Richardson at 15 Feb 2008 - 10:41pm
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no kidding .....
A prominent U.S.-based human rights group Friday released what it said was a recording of Pakistan's attorney general acknowledging that next week's national elections would be "massively" rigged.
Human Rights Watch said a journalist made the recording during a telephone interview with Attorney General Malik Qayyum when Qayyum took a second call without disconnecting the first, allowing his end of the second conversation to be overheard and recorded.
In the recording, Qayyum, Pakistan's top legal officer, can be heard advising the caller to accept a ticket he is being offered by an unidentified political party for a seat, Human Rights Watch said.
will massively rig to get their own people to win," Qayyum said, according to a transcript released by Human Rights Watch. "If you get a ticket from these guys, take it."
The potentially incendiary recording was made the day that elections were announced for Jan. 8, according to Human Rights Watch, which said the Urdu-language recording could be heard on its Web site, www.hrw.org.
The polls for the national assembly and four provincial legislatures were postponed until this Monday after large-scale violence ignited by the Dec. 27 assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
Tape Caught Pakistani Official Saying Vote Will Be Rigged