ISLAMABAD, Nov 10: Pakistan People’s Party Chairperson Benazir Bhutto on Saturday kept the entire capital administration and police on the run throughout the day by attending several scheduled and unscheduled events and meeting media personnel on streets.
Police officials, who seemed not to be prepared to meet such a situation, kept on chasing the vehicle of Ms Bhutto who also made a surprise attempt to meet deposed chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry at his official residence in the besieged Judges Colony.
Security personnel baton-charged PPP workers when they tried to remove barbed wires and other barricades at the entrance of the Judges Colony on the directive of their chairperson. Police finally succeeded in stopping Ms Bhutto some 300 meters away from Justice Iftikhar’s house by parking a truck in the middle of the road.
Speaking to a group of journalists and party activists, the former prime minister declared that Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry was the real chief justice of the country. “They are not allowing me to see the chief justice whereas no one is making effort to stop Maulana Fazlullah in Swat,” Ms Bhutto said in an obvious reference to the ongoing process of Talibanisation in tribal areas and the NWFP.
She demanded immediate restoration of the Constitution and reinstatement of all judges who had not taken the oath under the Provisional Constitution Order. She also called for the release of Supreme Court Bar Association president and PPP leader Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan and all lawyers who had been detained after the imposition of the state of emergency.
Earlier, Ms Bhutto addressed a protest demonstration organised by the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists against curbs on the media. The PPP chairperson condemned restrictions on the media and assured the journalists’ community of her party’s all-out support for the cause of freedom of the press.
Ms Bhutto also met representatives of civil society organisations and lawyers’ bodies at the PPP Central Secretariat.
Later, Ms Bhutto went to the Parliament House building to attend a reception, the only scheduled event of the day, where she briefed foreign diplomats based in Islamabad about the current political situation and her party’s viewpoint and strategy to oppose the emergency rule and military dictatorship in the country. The reception arranged by the PPP’s Foreign Liaison Committee was attended by ambassadors and high commissioners of more than 50 countries.
The PPP chairperson thanked the international community for calling upon Gen Musharraf to lift curbs on the media, release political prisoners, quit army post and hold elections as per schedule.
Ms Bhutto called upon Gen Musharraf to revive the Constitution, reinstate judges, retire as army chief on November 15, hold elections by January 15, reconstitute the Election Commission and implement election reforms, including an interim government of national consensus to oversee elections and suspension of nazims for the elections period.
