And my propaganda pre$$ is cheering it on!
See: Pakistan's Prime Minister Under Pressure
Where did Sharif go wrong?
"Pakistani Premier Denies Asking Army to Mediate" Aug 29, 2014, Associated Press
Pakistan's prime minister on Friday denied asking the country's military chief to mediate with opposition leaders and protesters who have camped for two weeks outside parliament in the capital, Islamabad, demanding his resignation over alleged voting fraud.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's remarks to the National Assembly indicated that talks with the opposition — with or without army chief Gen. Raheel Sharif's mediation — were unlikely to produce a breakthrough in the crisis.
They also threw into question earlier reports that said the government had requested the powerful military's mediation in the standoff with protesters led by cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan and fiery cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri.
Sharif's election last year marked the first democratic transition in the nuclear-armed nation's history, but Qadri and Khan have alleged widespread voting fraud.
On Thursday, the army chief met with Khan and Qadri, who afterward said they agreed to the military's role as "mediator and guarantor" in further talks with the government.
Khan said the general had also told him the army would guarantee an impartial judicial probe into allegations of vote fraud — though Khan said he insisted "there cannot be an independent investigation so long as Nawaz Sharif is prime minister."
Sharif told lawmakers that neither he nor the army had "sought any role in the mediation" but that he approved the military chief's meeting with the two opposition leaders.
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"Pakistan’s military joins political fray" by Asif Shahzad | Associated Press August 29, 2014
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan’s powerful military returned to the political arena on Thursday, agreeing to mediate between the government and protesters who have camped out in the capital for two weeks demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif over alleged voting fraud.
And gotten loads of coverage over here, too.
Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan and cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri, who have led parallel antigovernment protests, met with army chief General Raheel Sharif late Thursday after saying they had agreed to his role as ‘‘mediator and guarantor’’ in talks with the premier.
The move marks a tentative return to politics for the military barely a year after Sharif became prime minister in Pakistan’s first democratic transfer of power. The country has a long history of political turmoil and military interventions in politics, and Sharif himself was removed from office during a previous stint as prime minister in a military coup in 1999.
History repeats itself.
This time around, he has sought to assert his independence from the military with friendly policies toward Pakistan’s longtime rival India and an attempt to negotiate peace with Taliban insurgents, which made little progress.
That's where he went wrong.
His decision to bring treason charges against the country’s former military ruler, General Pervez Musharraf, who overthrew him in 1999, is believed to have angered the military.
But his main challenge over the past two weeks has come from the protests, which at their height brought tens of thousands of people to the capital, where they camped outside Parliament and demanded he resign over alleged fraud in last year’s election.
It's a Pakistani putsch!
Defense Minister Khwaja Mohammad Asif welcomed the offer of mediation, which came after the premier asked the military to broker talks.
‘‘I think we should view it positively that the army is playing a constitutional and legal role,’’ Asif told Pakistan’s GeoNews TV.
It was not immediately clear whether the military would be able to broker a deal. After the meeting, Khan said the general told him the army would guarantee an independent and impartial judicial probe into the allegations of vote fraud. But Khan said he made it clear that there cannot be an independent investigation so long as Nawaz Sharif is prime minister.
The decision to invite the army to mediate came after direct talks with the two protest leaders collapsed earlier Thursday, with Qadri, a popular Pakistani-Canadian cleric, saying he had ‘‘shut the door’’ on further talks with the government.
It also came after police filed charges of abetting murder against the prime minister and others over the killing of 14 Qadri supporters during clashes with police in June in the eastern city of Lahore. The police accepted the charges following a complaint by Qadri’s Minhaj-ul-Quran organization.
The criminal case names 20 other defendants, including Sharif’s brother, Shahbaz, chief minister of the eastern Punjab province. The prime minister enjoys immunity as long as he remains in office and has refused to step down.
The antigovernment demonstrations initially paralyzed Islamabad. In recent days they have fizzled out, though the crowds outside Parliament still surge in the evenings.
The entry of the military raised hopes that the crisis might soon be resolved but also alarm among some activists.
‘‘Now, we all know who rules Pakistan,’’ political commentator Asma Jehangir told DawnNews TV.
I think citizens of any and every country sense that.
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"Demonstrators eye home of leader
Pakistani police fired tear gas at thousands of protesters as they tried to march toward the prime minister's home in the capital on Saturday, blanketing the route with clouds of white smoke and scattering demonstrators (AP)."
"The rallies have remained festive, with families picnicking and men and women dancing to drums and national songs."
That's a tell from my propaganda pre$$.
"Police, protesters clash in Pakistan’s capital" by Asif Shahzad | Associated Press September 01, 2014
ISLAMABAD — Antigovernment protesters armed with slingshots and hammers clashed repeatedly with police Sunday in the Pakistani capital as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif met with top advisers seeking a way out of the crisis that has triggered the biggest challenge yet to his authority.
At least three people were killed and nearly 400 admitted to hospitals, officials said, in violence that started Saturday night and continued to boil over Sunday.
The violence has raised the stakes in the two-week sit-in led by opposition politician Imran Khan and fiery cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri. They want the prime minister to step down over their allegations of massive voting fraud in the election that brought him into office last year in the country’s first democratic transfer of power.
Sharif’s party was elected in a landslide in which observers found no evidence of widespread fraud. The prime minister has refused to step down, and negotiators have tried to convince Qadri and Khan to end their protests.
The military weighed in after a late Sunday meeting, saying that it had ‘‘serious concern’’ about the crisis. ‘‘Further use of force will only aggravate the problem,’’ it said in a statement calling on political figures to resolve their differences swiftly.
The demonstrations were mostly peaceful until late Saturday, when protesters headed toward the prime minister’s residence. When the crowd started removing shipping containers used as barricades, police fired salvos of tear gas that forced protesters back.
Authorities have said they had no choice but to use force on the demonstrators, some of whom wore gas masks.
How did they get gas masks?
Hundreds of people were arrested, said Police Chief Khalid Khattak. There were scattered clashes Sunday morning, and protesters appeared to regroup later in the afternoon.
By evening, large groups of protesters were located in pockets around the Parliament and some had spread into other parts of the city, said police official Amir Paracha. He said they had taken shields from police and were wielding iron rods, batons, stones, and bricks.
The injured included women, children, journalists, and police officers who had been hurt by tear gas shells, batons, and rubber bullets, said Dr. Javed Akram, who heads the capital’s main hospital.
They just crossed the line.
Railways Minister Saad Rafiq said the government would investigate the conduct of officers who beat up some journalists.
What?
The prime minister met Sunday with top advisers at his residence. In a news release, Sharif said he would convene a joint session of Parliament on Tuesday to address the crisis.
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"Pakistan's Premier Challenged by Raging Protests" Sep 1, 2014 by ZARAR KHAN and ASIF SHAHZAD Associated Press
Ahead of a joint session of parliament, Pakistan's prime minister and army chief held marathon meetings Monday over violent anti-government protests that could force the premier of this nuclear-armed country to resign.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif again vowed he would not step down under duress, even as protesters briefly took over the country's state-run television broadcaster and battled security forces in the streets. But the pressure from three days of violent protests on Sharif has intensified amid reports — later denied by the military — that the country's powerful army chief advised him to resign.
The parliamentary session Tuesday appears to be an attempt to rally political support to the prime minister's side. While many politicians have backed him so far, many in the country increasingly have grown worried about the protests and the direction of the nascent democracy in the country of 180 million people.
The turmoil comes as part of the mass demonstrations led by cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri and opposition politician Imran Khan, who both demand Sharif step down over their allegations of fraud in last year's election.
Their protests, which have been peaceful for weeks, turned ugly this weekend when clashes between protesters and security forces killed three people and wounded some 400 in running street battles in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad.
Monday began with more violence. Demonstrators briefly took over Pakistan's state television station, forcing the channel off the air. Senior official Athar Farooq said 20 cameras went missing as protesters overran the station, armed with sticks and screaming. The intruders also destroyed equipment and fought with employees.
Several protesters also took down a portrait of Sharif from a wall, threw it on the floor and stomped on it in anger.
This is looking more and more like the same old scripted and staged propaganda I'm used to seeing.
Soldiers and paramilitary Rangers later reached the building and began to clear it of protesters. Some private television stations showed footage of protesters embracing the Rangers and agreeing to leave.
The rallies against Sharif constitute the biggest threat to his government. Several rounds of negotiations between representatives of Khan and Qadri and the government have failed to resolve the crisis.
The two opposition leaders allege widespread fraud in the country's May 2013 election, in which Sharif's party won by a landslide. International observers found no evidence indicating rampant election tampering.
Rumors swirled around the capital Monday after several television stations reported that the military forced Sharif to leave office, something the army later called "totally baseless."
But questions about whether the military has played a role in fomenting the crisis intensified after a news conference by Javed Hashmi, who until Sunday was a top ally of Khan and the president of his political party, Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf.
Hashmi said he disagreed with the party's decision to march late Saturday toward the prime minister's house and parliament, which sparked the clashes with police. He also has warned Pakistan is moving dangerously close toward martial law being implemented. On Monday, he described Khan's protest movements as being scripted.
We all see it.
He also said he opposed joining Qadri's protest. But touching his shoulder, in reference to the epaulettes military officers wear, Hashmi said Khan told him: "They want us to go with Tahir-ul-Qadri.
That is where the print ended.
Khan has denied any outside influence on his protest. The military also categorically rejected the idea that they backed the protesters and said their support for democracy was "unequivocal."
That means it's true.
However, Pakistan's military wields a powerful influence in the country. It has taken power in three coups since the country was carved out of India in 1947, including one that forced Sharif out of the prime minister's office in 1999 and into exile.
They did that with another guy and he was convinced to come back.
Sharif's relations with the military have become increasingly rocky over his year in power. He infuriated them by pressing treason charges against former army chief Pervez Musharraf, who toppled him in 1999. The prime minister has pursued strengthened diplomatic ties with India, the country's longtime advisory, and pursued peace talks with Taliban militants who have launched many attacks against the country's security forces. He also sided with a private television station that accused the country's spy agency of trying to kill a top anchor.
Critics also have questioned Sharif's handling of the crisis, saying he has failed to show enough leadership.
"He has always been missing tactically at the critical junctures, and somebody else, whether it is the army or Qadri or Imran, has always been there to occupy his space," read an editorial in Monday's edition of The Nation, one of the country's leading English-language newspapers. "It is his relentless absence that has engulfed him, ravaged his legitimacy and torn him apart politically."
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Nothing, not a word about the North Waziristan offensive, either.
Also related:
"Vermont group protests at gas executive’s home
An activist group claimed responsibility Saturday for a protest at the home of Vermont Gas Systems’ president, saying it wanted to highlight the threat of eminent domain for the extension of a gas pipeline. In an email to Vermont media, Green Mountain EarthFirst claimed it ‘‘temporarily seized’’ the property of Vermont Gas President Don Gilbert on Friday night and served a ‘‘people’s eminent domain notice.’’ The company’s plan to extend a natural gas line from Burlington to Middlebury and eventually to Rutland has sparked protests, and some landowners have refused to allow easements. The company is offering mediation and has said it hopes to avoid the use of eminent domain. Hinesburg police Chief Frank Koss said about two dozen people entered Gilbert’s property after dark Friday, but left after police arrived (AP)."
It's enough to make you want to gag.
NEXT DAY UPDATES:
Dominion, Duke propose $5b natural gas pipeline
PG&E penalized $1.4B for deadly pipeline blast
"Pakistani lawmakers back Sharif amid calls for resignation" by Salman Masood | New York Times September 03, 2014
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Lawmakers met in an emergency session Tuesday to express support for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, after days of violent protests had appeared to bring the government to the brink of collapse.
Thousands of protesters, many armed with sticks and batons, remained camped outside Parliament, demanding the resignation of Sharif and accusing him of electoral fraud, nepotism, and corruption. But after three days of clashes between protesters and security forces that left three dead and hundreds wounded, there were no reports of violence Tuesday.
Separate but sympathetic protest movements, led by opposition politician Imran Khan and cleric Tahir ul-Qadri, have paralyzed Islamabad for two weeks.
As the demonstrations have grown more aggressive in recent days, there have been intensifying accusations that the country’s military establishment has supported, or even directed, the protests in order to weaken Sharif. Protest leaders and military officials have denied those accusations.
Bloggers I read were saying that right from the start.
On Tuesday, though, there was a sense that protest leaders were cautiously slowing the pace a day after demonstrators stormed the state television headquarters, and after a meeting between the army chief of staff and Sharif initially caused alarmed speculation that the military was pushing him to step down.
In Parliament, leaders of several parties criticized the protests and expressed support for Sharif, calling it critical for Pakistan’s democracy that he not be removed by force. Sharif listened to the proceedings with a somber expression, occasionally thumping his desk during more emotional appeals.
But support for Sharif was not unalloyed. Although one senator with the Pakistan Peoples Party, Aitzaz Ahsan, addressed the prime minister with the admonition that, “no one can force you to resign,” it was followed with the admission that, “we stand with you out of compulsion.”
Lawmakers have expressed growing criticism of Sharif’s governance in recent months, complaining that he has been aloof on important issues and mostly absent from parliamentary proceedings.
But the protests by Qadri and Khan — and in particular the violence of the past few days — appeared to galvanize political leaders to take the side of the standing government. In particular, the accusations of the military’s involvement appeared to outrage many.
“We request that the armed forces remain within their constitutional limits and be with us,” Mahmood Khan Achakzai, a blunt nationalist politician, said during his speech on the Parliament floor.
Maulana Fazalur Rehman, an influential religious politician, claimed that even as protesters did not hesitate to attack and beat police officers, they appeared to melt away at the signal of army officers on the street.
Meanwhile, Khan and Qadri appeared together for the first time Tuesday evening since they started their separate protest campaigns.
Khan announced that his party lawmakers would resign from Parliament in Wednesday’s sitting after a senior party leader made a final speech.
Stick-wielding supporters of Qadri could be seen staffing checkpoints on a main avenue to the government sector, frisking people as they approached the prime minister’s offices and Parliament.
Lawmakers had to use a longer, alternate route to reach Parliament for the joint session, which is expected to last a week.
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