Australia's Supposrt of Musharraf

Carla Neal/Feb. 17, 2008/10:20 am/Democracy

Imran Khan, a Pakistani politician and former supporter turned critic of the recent president of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, made a plea with the Australian government to remove their backing of the president. Khan claimed that Australia “needed to promote more democracy” and they could not do that while supporting a President that “seized power by force of the nation, became president through a coup that deposed the elected president”, and threw out the whole judiciary process while ruling on opposing parties or individuals during that time. Khan also believes that Musharraf and his followers will not go down without a fight, he says “the real war will begin on Feb. 19” this is the day after the Paskistan presidential elections, when, Khan claims, that a new president will be elected into power.

Khan is probably correct when he believes that this is only the beginning of the “war” because if this president did do all of the things the citizens in his country say he did, especially “over throwing” the elected government and ruling personally on consequences of his opposition, then he is not going to like giving up his position just because “the people” elect someone new, which Khan says isn’t going to be many because of the fear of opposing the recent president. That in itself is a violation of basic democratic rights because everyone should have the choice to vote in an election without the fear that there are going to be consequences for voting for the “wrong person”. Of course, if the president does not “go down” peacefully, I don’t think that the US or any country backing this president will be able to justify his actions any longer.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/imran-urges-rudd-to-break-with-musharraf-and-back-democracy/2008/02/17/1203190650516.html