ISLAMABAD, 29 September 2007 — Pakistani authorities released dozens of opposition leaders and workers following an order by the country’s chief justice, officials said yesterday.
The activists were held at the weekend after threatening to stage protests against the re-election of President Pervez Musharraf on Oct. 6.
“Those detained under the maintenance of public order laws have been released on the direction of the Supreme Court,” an Interior Ministry spokesman told AFP.
Among those freed late Thursday were Javed Hashmi, acting chief of exiled former Premier Nawaz Sharif’s party, and another central leader of the party, Raja Zafarul Haq.
“The court’s decision is a massive embarrassment for the government,” Hashmi told AFP yesterday.
“They detained us unlawfully and suppressed our democratic rights.” He said the intervention of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Thursday showed that the “era of oppression and arbitrary detentions under Gen. Musharraf was over.
“We will continue with our struggle for ending military dictatorship and restoration of democracy,” added Hashmi, who was freed from three years in jail on sedition charges in July.
Benazir Says Deal Unlikely
Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto acknowledged Thursday that she had met secretly with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf but said she was increasingly pessimistic about reaching a power-sharing deal with the leader.
In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Benazir said she and Musharraf have “had an opportunity to meet, we’ve had a good rapport, a good exchange of ideas, but there are people around him who don’t want this understanding, who don’t want him to make the political concessions that are necessary to facilitate the path toward democracy.” Asked if she had met secretly with Musharraf, Benazir said, “well, we were supposed to keep it secret, but it’s kind of an open secret now.
“I had asked him to take some steps for fair elections. These remain unimplemented,” she said. “So, now I worry. I worry that time is running out.” In July, Pakistan’s minister for railways said Musharraf and Benazir met in Abu Dhabi.
