Former president Musharraf banned from elections for life

Editor’s note: A new HBO documentary, MANHUNT, based on the book of the same name by Peter Bergen, airs TONIGHT on HBO. Read reviews here: NYT, WSJ, Washingtonian, Hollywood Reporter, NY Post.

Barred for life

The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday banned former president Pervez Musharraf from running for public office for life (AP, ET, Dawn). Musharraf’s lawyer Saad Shibli said he would challenge the ban on the grounds that, "About 500 officials at different levels and institutions were part of Musharraf’s actions [while he was president], and if those actions come under scrutiny, all those people should be involved in this matter."

Pakistan’s powerful Army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani may have alluded to the military’s unhappiness with the way Musharraf has been treated by the courts when he said, "In my opinion, it is not merely retribution, but awareness and participation of the masses that can truly end this game of hide and seek between democracy and dictatorship" (Reuters).

Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan has not appeared to be a major target for the Pakistani Taliban, who have regularly attacked other candidates in this year’s election season, and he said this week, "When I came to politics 17 years ago, I had already conquered my fear of dying" (AFP). Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf has busied itself holding massive rallies around the country to drum up support, but even he was forced to cancel a public rally in Karachi last weekend after attacks on other candidates took the lives of 20 people.

A suicide bomb attack on National People’s Party candidate Imbrahim Jatoi on Wednesday reportedly injured two people, though Jatoi escaped unharmed (Dawn, ET/AFP). Pakistani fighter jets strafed militant hideouts in Orakzai Agency on Wednesday, killing four militants and destroying two of their camps (Dawn).

Danger persists 

A roadside bomb killed three British soldiers and nine Afghans in the southern province of Helmand on Tuesday, in the deadliest day for British troops in Afghanistan in more than a year (NYT, BBC, Guardian). Taliban militants in Helmand’s conflict-ridden Gereshk District ambushed the convoy of a senior member of the Afghanistan High Peace Council, Malim Shahwali, who was killed in the attack along with two of his bodyguards (Reuters, Pajhwok).

During a visit to Estonia on Tuesday, Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul blamed the sharp increase in Afghanistan’s cultivation of poppies on the global demand for narcotics (AFP). Afghanistan grows 90 percent of the global opium supply, and a United Nations report released in April predicts record production levels this year.

An Afghan civilian and two of his children were killed on Tuesday evening when the vehicle they were travelling in struck a roadside bomb in the Charchino District of central Uruzgan Province (Pajhwok). Three female members of his family were wounded in the explosion. The spokesman for Kunar Province’s governor, Wasifullah Wasfi, said Tuesday that more than 40 missiles had been fired from across the border with Pakistan onto Afghan territory (Pajhwok). No casualties were reported.

To shari’a or not to shari’a?

A new poll conducted by the Pew Research Center has found that South Asia leads the Muslim world in its desire to see the implementation of shari’a law (Pew). Large majorities of respondents around the world expressed support for shari’a, but they disagreed about which aspects of the religious law should be applied, from family law governing marriages and divorces to the lopping off of the hands of thieves.

— Jennifer Rowland