Turmoil In Pakistan: Supreme Court Ousts Prime Minister Gilani

Pakistan's political situation has been anything but serene since Pervez Musharaf lost power. Yousuf Raza Gilani was elected Prime Minister but he's run afoul of the Supreme Court once again for failing to investigate and prosecute claims of corruption against Asif Ali Zardari, the country's president.

Today, the court essentially booted him from office.

Local television news stations said leaders of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party were huddled in an emergency meeting and seemed poised to accept the court’s decision and nominate a different leader to the prime minister’s spot, diffusing some of the tension.

“Yousuf Raza Gilani has been disqualified from the membership of parliament from April 26, which is the date of his conviction, and he has also ceased to be the prime minister of Pakistan,” Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry read from the court order, according to reports by Geo news and other television channels.

“The election commission shall issue a notice of disqualification and the president is also required to take all necessary steps to ensure the continuation of democratic process in the country.”

But the Associated Press quoted Fawad Chaudhry, an aide to Gilani, saying that Gilani would continue his duties and only the parliament could disqualify the prime minister.

Legal experts were debating whether the disqualification could render moot Gilani’s legislative activity since April 26, including passage of Pakistan’s budget. Some said the court’s decision probably would invalidate at least some of Gilani’s actions over the past eight weeks.

“The prime minister should have left his office back in April, when he was convicted for contempt of court, but he decided to stick to his slot illegally,” retired judge Wajihuddin Ahmed told Geo TV. He said that he thought Gilani’s “day-to-day government affairs” work would likely stand but that other official acts could be declared invalid.

Gilani’s conviction stemmed from his adamant refusal to pursue money-laundering and kickback cases brought by Swiss authorities against Zardari; he faced up to six months in prison but was never sentenced.

This also throws the US-Pakistan relationship into limbo as well as counter terrorism efforts in the frontier provinces. The PPP will try to maintain a veneer of normalcy but this is anything but normal.

All the political turmoil adds to an unstable political and economic situation, including power shortages and riots, and ongoing terrorism in the frontier provinces. The government has been ineffective to resolve any of the issues confronting it.

Pakistan's Government Deals With Fallout From Bin Laden Raid

Around the world, people are trying to figure out exactly how Osama bin Laden was able to live and thrive in the shadow of Pakistan's military academy for years without anyone in the Pakistani government knowing. Many suggest that the government was either incompetent or complicit in bin Laden avoiding capture for all these years.

Statements from bin Laden's wife suggests complicity with at least some members of the Pakistani security services such that while the government at its highest levels may not have known that bin Laden was in their country, others who did were doing their best to keep the government in the dark about bin Laden's whereabouts.



The US raid has raised the ire among both Pakistani Islamists and nationalists - each of whom have taken exception with the US and the Pakistani government. The US acted as though the Pakistani government was penetrated and could not be trusted. That could be seen as lack of faith in the Pakistani government, or that it provides the Pakistani government an out - allowing the Prime Minister to claim that the US acted alone to avoid the appearance of collusion in going after bin Laden that could raise the ire of the Islamists.

Prime Minister Gilani rejects the claims of incompetence or collusion, but those are pretty much empty statements without more evidence to suggest otherwise.

Gilani acknowledges Pakistan's "intelligence failures" over the bin Laden case, but says all the world's intelligence agencies also failed in the inability to track down the terrorist leader.

Update at 9:47 a.m. ET: In an address to Pakistan, he rejected the "blame game" in attempts to point the finger at Pakistan's military and intelligence agency, known as ISI.

"Yes, there has been an intelligence failure," Gilani says. "It is not only ours, but all intelligence agencies of the world. The al Qaeda chief, along with other al Qaeda operatives, have managed to elude other intelligence agencies for a long time."

He says, in fact, that ISI was responsible for a tip that helped lead the CIA to bin Laden's hideout in a compound in Abbottabad, 35 miles from Islamabad.

"It is disingenuous for anyone to blame Pakistan or the state institutions of Pakistan, including the ISI and the armed forces, for being in cahoots with al Aqaeda," he says.

He concedes that the issue of how bin Laden could hide in plain site is a source of concern in Pakistan, but says an investigation has been ordered to get to the bottom of it.

"Let's not rush to judgment," he says. "Charges of incompetence or complicity are absurd. We emphatically reject such speculation."

The problem is that the CIA and US officials both state that Pakistani intel services were in the dark about bin Laden's whereabouts and that they didn't consult with the Pakistanis before the raid, lest they tip off bin Laden as to the impending raid. While the Prime Minister claims full confidence in the Pakistani military and ISI, the behind the scenes situation is likely to be full of recriminations and demands for answers in how the government could have been left in the dark about bin Laden's whereabouts for so long.

The Pakistani government has to walk a fine line between dealing the Islamists a blow and nationalists who might side with the Islamists over the hard feelings created by the US raid to take out bin Laden with the government apparently in the dark about the raid until after the raid was already underway.

So, why did bin Laden choose Abbottabad? Well, it was central to Pakistan with easy access to Islamabad and a quick getaway to the frontier provinces should bin Laden be tipped off. Building a walled compound wouldn't be out of character, and the area was a frequent destination of vacationers and Pakistanis from all over the country.

I suspect that the military academy was another reason that bin Laden chose the town; it could provide a source for recruiting future jihadis.

It also appears that the compound wasn't nearly as militarized as one could have expected; there weren't escape tunnels, hidden weapons caches, or other accoutrements that one could expect around a terror master like bin Laden. Perhaps he grew complacent in the fact that he was hiding in plain sight and that his security measures were sufficient to avoid detection by the Pakistanis or that he wasn't expecting the US to carry out a raid against his compound.

Don't expect other al Qaeda terror masters like Awlaki or Zawahiri to make that same mistake. Both are more likely to take additional security precautions in light of how the US carried out the raid in Pakistan.

Pakistani Christians Bury Assassinated Government Minister Who Supported Repeal of Anti Blasphemy Laws

Shahbaz Bhatti was laid to rest in his home village in Pakistan after being assassinated on Wednesday because he sought a repeal of the country's notorious anti-blasphemy laws.

Thousands of Pakistani mourners have attended the funeral of murdered minorities minister Shahbaz Bhatti.

Mr Bhatti, a Christian, was shot dead on Wednesday by the Taliban after he urged reform to blasphemy laws.

There were emotional scenes as several thousand Christians buried their leader in his home village near Faisalabad.

Earlier, hundreds turned out for a church service in the capital. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told them his colleague had been "very rare".

Wednesday's assassination in Islamabad was the second this year of a Pakistani politician who wanted to reform the controversial blasphemy laws.

The ease with which Bhatti was assassinated led to calls for the resignation of key security ministers and investigations.

The blasphemy law imposes a death sentence for anyone who insults Prophet Muhammad or the religion of Islam, but its opponents note that the law has been used to settle personal scores and persecute members of the minority faiths.

Gilani was among those paying their respects at the funeral, but President Zardari did not attend, and the ruling party has refused to reform the blasphemy law.

Bhatti and Punjab province Gov. Salman Taseer both criticized the blasphemy laws after a Christian woman was sentenced to death under them last year. On Jan. 4, Taseer was shot dead by one of his bodyguards, who said he was angry about the governor's stance on the laws.

But the ruling party abandoned Bhatti and Taseer on the subject, a sign of how scared they are of upsetting powerful Islamist groups. Gilani has repeatedly insisted the government would not change the laws.

President Asif Ali Zardari did not attend the funeral mass or the burial service in Khushpur, though he rarely makes public appearances out of fear for his life. Also notably missing were top leaders of the main opposition party, the Pakistan Muslim League-N, which is considered somewhat sympathetic to Islamists.

There are reports that Gilani offered to step down because of the assassination because someone had to take responsibility for the security lapses.

What's needed is that Pakistan's top leadership repudiate the blasphemy laws and reform the law. Instead, they're cowed by the threats of violence against those who express any views that are antithetical to the Islamic extremists.

Pakistan In Turmoil Once Again

A day after Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani suffered a major setback after one of the parties left the ruling coalition short of the necessary votes in Parliament and could raise a vote of no confidence at any time, an outspoken ally to the President Zardari was assassinated by one of his security guards at a market. The assassination was sparked by his opposition to a death sentence handed down against a woman for blasphemy.

The governor of Pakistan's largest province was assassinated Tuesday at a genteel market in the nation's capital--allegedly by one of his own security guards, angered by the governor's support of a Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy.

Police said Salman Taseer- a sharp-tongued supporter of embattled President Asif Ali Zardari and an outspoken critic of religious extremists - was shot multiple times at the shopping plaza, which is near his home in Islamabad and is frequented by foreigners.

A Pakistani news station quoted a witness who said he saw a security guard get out of Taseer's vehicle, raise a Kalishnikov rifle and fire through the window of the vehicle.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said one of the governor's guards surrendered to police after the shooting, and told them he was angered by Taseer's recent public endorsement of a pardon for a Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy.

That position had earned Taseer threats from Islamist parties, who held a strike last week against proposed changes to the nation's controversial anti-blasphemy laws. Taseer stood by his stance, posting on Dec. 30 on his Twitter account: "I was under huge pressure sure 2 cow down b4 rightest pressure on blasphemy. Refused. Even if I'm the last man standing."

Islamists have been gunning for Taseer for months now, calling him an apostate over his stance on blasphemy laws and because he was not kowtowing to the Islamist line.

None of this is especially helpful to the ongoing counterterrorism efforts against the Taliban and al Qaeda that operate from Pakistan's frontier provinces that are loosely governed from Islamabad.