Musharraf has stated that they will try for elections in mid-January after the current state of affairs stabilizes, and Benazir Bhutto is calling for elections in January as well.
Various NGO’s and party spokespersons are condemning the PCO and defacto martial law, however there aren’t strong rallies or contingents in the streets, which makes me think it’s more pro-forma than firmly backed. (If there were indeed a strong coalition formed against Musharraf at this time the nation would be in shutterdown demonstrations everywhere, and things would come to a grinding halt.)
The stories across the nation speak of hundreds of lawyers protesting, and in some cases thousands, but in Pakistan if you can’t rally 5,000 or more then it’s not a real demonstration.
In Parachinar village tribal levies were attacked, and four were kidnapped in a battle which could signal the re-surgance of sectarian violence that shut down the markets and resulted in many deaths earlier this summer.
The Nederlands has cut off aid, we’ve stopped the sale of some F-16 fighters with a review, and all nations are strongly signalling Musharraf that they don’t like his latest move. President Bush is asking Musharraf to quit the military through Condoleeza Rice, and other aid is also under review, which means held.
