Pakistan goes to the polls on Monday - but is the fix already in?

On Friday Human Rights Watch released a recording that it maintains is of Pakistan's Attorney General, acknowledging that the nations parliamentary elections scheduled for Monday will be "massively rigged."

Human Rights Watch said the recording was made by a journalist during a telephone interview with Attorney General Malik Qayyum. The AG interrupted the interview with the journalist to take a second call, but failed to disconnect the first, thus allowing his end of the second conversation to be overheard and recorded.

The AG interrupted the interview with the journalist to take a second call, but failed to disconnect the first, thus allowing his end of the second conversation to be overheard and recorded.

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.

The recording was released a day after Pakistani president Pervez Musharref warned the opposition that they must accept the outcome of Monday's elections, and not take to the streets in protest. (Where, pray tell, has this man been???)

"Let there be no doubt that anyone will be allowed to resort to lawlessness in the garb of allegations about rigging in the elections," Musharraf was quoted as telling a seminar of government officials in Islamabad by the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan. "Let this serve as a warning to all those who think they can disturb the peace of the country. They will not be allowed. Do not test the resolve of the government."

"No agitation, anarchy or chaos can be acceptable," he said. "I assure you that the elections will be fair, free, and transparent and peaceful."

Fears of vote-rigging have been fed by polls that show the Pakistani Peoples Party and other opposition parties on the verge of capturing enough seats to toss Musharraf out on his (now un-uniformed) ass for abrogating the nations constitution last year so he could consolidate his power.

Musharraf's standing, and that of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, also has been hurt by skyrocketing prices, shortages of electricity, gas and wheat, a failure to contain the Islamic insurgency based in the tribal area bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan's support for the Bush administration's fight against al Qaida.

"There have been numerous allegations of irregularities, including arrests and harassment of opposition candidates and party members. There are also allegations that state resources, administration, and state machinery are being used to the advantage of candidates backed by President Pervez Musharraf," Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

Human Rights Watch said it had tried repeatedly to contact Qayyum, a staunch supporter of Musharraf, but had been unable to reach him.

On Thursday Asif Ali Zadari, the widower of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, held a final rally of members of her Pakistani Peoples Party in the same park where his wife gave her first political address three decades ago.

Security was high and reflected an upsurge in suicide attacks that have included attacks on opposition rallies and gatherings. Police sharpshooters took up positions on rooftops and scanned the crowds while commandos dressed in black from head to toe stood among the security personnel who ringed the stage.

In a sign of the times, the stage was set back from the barricades that kept the crowd a safe distance from the stage, and Ms. Bhutto's husband spoke from behind a podium of bulletproof glass and steel.

Without naming Musharraf, Mr. Zardari said that it was time to change the system. "Benazir was a martyr. She believed in you, in the brothers and sisters, and I also believe in you," he proclaimed.

And that's all well and good - so long as the elections are fair.

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A Day in the Life of Pakistan

A suicide bomber killed at least 25 27 people, including two police officers and several children; and injured dozens in Charsadda, Pakistan in the turbulent North West Frontier province, an area where Islamist extremists have been battling government forces for control. It was the latest act in a wave of rampant violence that has steadily worsened since Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated on December 27.

The bomber struck at a rally organized by the secular Awami National Party, which opposes Islamist parties for support among the local ethnic Pashtun population. Abdul Waheed, a 22 year old who survived the attack but was seriously burned, said the bomber blew himself up as a member of the party was leading a recitation of verses from the Quran. ''I only heard the blast and cries and then something hit me and I fell down,'' Waheed told The Associated Press from his hospital bed in Peshawar.

All of Pakistan has been a powderkeg since the assassination of Ms. Bhutto, and nowhere have tensions been higher than in the lawless North West Frontier Province, in the border region with Afghanistan where the remnants of Al Qaeda are thought to ave sought and found safe haven after they were allowed to slip away at Tora Bora. Islamic militants in the region have been somewhat successful in battling government forces and challenging government control.

Because of the worsening violence, parliamentary candidates standing in the February 18 elections have shunned large outdoor rallies, opting to campaign in smaller, more intimate settings held inside the walled compounds of party stalwarts. The television footage of the aftereffects of the blast, the bloodstained clothing, overturned chairs, and the scenes of general chaos that littered the grand meeting hall of a party members sprawling private home drove home the point that even these tightly controlled settings are susceptible to attack by determined terrorists.

In spite of the overt danger, 100,000 members of Ms. Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party defiantly gathered in a sports stadium in Thatta as the party resumed its campaigning following the end of the traditional 40 day mourning period following her death. Her widow, Asif Ali Zardari, vowed in an emotional speech to carry forth his murdered wife's mission, and he beseeched the assembled masses to ''give me strength so that we can serve the country.''

''I have the responsibility to save Pakistan,'' Zardari said. ''This is our country and we have to save it.''

A 24 year old laborer who attended the rally said that the reputation of Mr. Zardari was not very good, but that devotion to Benazir compelled many to to attend the rally. ''We will avenge the blood of Benazir. We don't have bombs. We are not terrorists, but we have political power and we will capitalize on this political power to avenge the death of Benazir,'' said another supporter, Haji Jaffar, 75, a retired teacher. The martyring of Ms. Bhutto has strengthened the resolve of her supporters and shored up the strength of her party.

Elsewhere in Pakistan, approximately 1,500 lawyers attempted Saturday to march to the barricaded home of the Chief Justice of the countries Supreme Court, who was suspended from his position last March by Pervez Mushareff last November in an attempt to control the judiciary which opposed his authoritarian rule. As the lawyers attempted to cross the barbed-wire barricade, hundreds of riot police unleashed tear gas and water cannons, topped off with a baton charge. Although there were no reports of serious injury, several lawyers were roughed up. Earlier Saturday, the countries Bar Council announced that the lawyers nationwide will boycott the courts through election day in an attempt to restore the suspended judges.

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Martyred

The Islamist-extremist bastards got her.

The Associated Press is reporting that Benazir Bhutto has been murdered.

After speaking at a rally in Rawalpindi, Pakistan an attacker fired a weapon at her as she was leaving the rally, then blew himself up, killing 20 others and his target - the uppity woman who didn't know her place.

"At 6:16 p.m. she expired," said Wasif Ali Khan, a member of Bhutto's party who was at Rawalpindi General Hospital, where she was taken after the explosion.

A senior military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment, confirmed that Bhutto had died.

Updates will follow as details emerge.

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Benazir Bhutto returns from exile, Taliban-led assassination attempt kills over 100 supporters

The Aftermath

More than 100 people perished late Thursday as bombs detonated along the parade route as former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto returned to her home city of Karachi after eight years in exile.
Hundreds of thousands of jubilant Pakistanis lined the streets and danced atop cars as her entourage passed.

Then...Chaos erupted.

...After an initial small explosion, a huge blast came just feet from the front of the truck carrying Ms. Bhutto during a procession through Karachi. The blast shattered windows in her vehicle, The A.P. said.

Televised views of the scene showed bodies in the nighttime city streets, crowds running through traffic that is at a standstill and the noises of sirens and people screaming.

Before the explosions, hundreds of thousands of supporters lined the streets, dancing on bus roofs, waving banners and surging forward for a glimpse of their leader as she inched her way through the city atop a bullet-proof truck.

The huge and enthusiastic turnout earlier on Thursday made it an emotional homecoming for Ms. Bhutto, who was twice turned out of office and has lived in self-imposed exile. It was also a vindication for her politically that after leading two short-lived governments and being accused together with her husband of corruption and mismanagement, she could still command fervent support on the streets

The throngs that greeted Ms. Bhutto on Thursday were larger than those that lined the streets in 1986 when she returned from exile the first time, to face politically - and prevail over - Muhammed Zia-al-Huq, the General who had deposed her fathers government and installed martial law for the third time in Pakistan's short history as an independent nation.

That return from exile preceded Ms. Bhutto's historic rise to power. She was the first woman in the Muslim world to be elected Prime Minister and lead a nation.

Before the bombings, Ms. Bhutto looked out on the teeming crowds of mostly working class Pakistanis. Many were unemployed young men, a great many of whom had traveled hundreds of kilometers and camped along the roadside leading to the airport, anxiously awaiting her arrival.

In words that later seemed prescient, she spoke strongly against terrorism and the need to save Pakistan from extremism through democracy. “The time has come for democracy,” she said. “If we want to save Pakistan, we have to have democracy.”

She has been outspoken against militants and Al Qaeda and repeated the same comments as she flew in. “The terrorists are trying to take over my country and we have to stop them,” she said.

The New York Times is now pegging the death toll at 115 and counting, and the Taliban, allied with (the real) al Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the bombing and assassination attempt against Ms. Bhutto, who is determined to take a hard line against their thuggery and extremism.

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