West must act after judge held- ex-leaders

Exiled former leaders of Pakistan said last week they were deeply worried by the arrest of a top judge in Islamabad and accused Western leaders of hypocrisy in tolerating country's "military dictatorship".

Former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif said a judicial crisis in Pakistan has cast doubt on promised elections in the country, where President Pervez Musharraf seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999.

They pointed out that while NATO troops in neighbouring Afghanistan were being killed in the fight to restore democracy, Britain and the United States among others winked at several incidents in Pakistan.

"If democracy must be defended in Afghanistan, then democracy in Pakistan must be defended, too," Bhutto told reporters after two hours of talks with Sharif in London. "It is important for the international community to stop turning a blind eye."

Bhutto and Sharif, once bitter rivals, formed the multi-party Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy after Musharraf seized power. "We have some very serious constitutional issues coming up - whether the president can be re-elected, whether he can also be the chief of army staff and whether former prime ministers can return," Bhutto said.

"Many people believe that the chief justice of Pakistan was forcibly removed because he could not be relied upon to rubber stamp the desires of the current regime."

Bhutto and Sharif have repeatedly called for free and fair elections that would end their exile but Musharraf has accused both of corruption and vowed to block their return to Pakistan.

Musharraf himself is now facing the greatest challenge to his authority since he seized power.

Hundreds of Pakistani lawyers and opposition supporters protested outside the Supreme Court In Islamabad on Wednesday, demanding justice for Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry who was suspended on March 9 and kept under virtual house arrest for a week.

The move to sack Chaudry led to suspicion Musharraf feared the independent-minded judge would block any attempt by the president to keep the post of army chief, which he is due to give up this year.

"We have jointly decided to struggle against this military dictatorship and do everything within our means to stop the brutalities Mr Musharraf is committing against institutions in Pakistan," Sharif said on Wednesday.

He said he and Bhutto felt let down by Western leaders who said the question of allowing former prime ministers back into Pakistan was an internal matter.

"The double standards are there," Sharif said.

Musharraf is a close U.S. ally in fighting terrorism and U.S. officials say they have been pushing hard for him to work toward a democratic transition.

"As long as he heading in that direction, we will work with him," a senior U.S. State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said on Wednesday.

Musharraf said in a television interview last week that elections due late this year or early next would be held on time. Bhutto and Sharif said it was vital to restore democracy as soon as possible in Pakistan, where they said the Taliban was regrouping in tribal areas and putting the security of the entire country in jeopardy, while violence against women parliamentarians was surging.

REUTERS