Pakistan’s supreme cellphone jammer

Embattled Pakistani President-General-Censor-in-Chief Pervez Musharraf has his hands full these days with all those loud, disagreeable lawyers and that headstrong, trouble-making female politician. Kind of reminds you of the domestic pre-2008 presidential election scene.
It’s uncertain just how long President Bush’s key ally on the war on terrorism can keep former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, lawyers, opposition politicians and other activists in check before things really get ugly. After a frank chat with Bush last week in which the U.S. president supposedly sought to dress down Musharraf-at least get him to shed his military garb in favor of a suit and tie-the all-powerful Pakistani leader vowed to hold parliamentary elections by mid-February, or around the time the 700 MHz auction should be in full gear in these parts.
Why the reference to 700 MHz bidding? It sounds like a non-sequitur rivaling Musharraf’s explanation that in order to crack down on terrorism there needs to be a state of emergency in which civil liberties are crushed.
Fired Pakistani supreme court judge Iftikhar Chaudhry, involuntarily holed up in his house, had to figure a way to get his voice heard. So he reached for his mobile phone to fire up the vanguard of lawyers leading public protests, according to press reports. “The constitution has been ripped to shreds,” said Chaudhry whose phone address reportedly was amplified through a loudspeaker to anti-Musharraf protesters. “The lawyers should convey my message to the people to rise up and restore the constitution. This is a time for sacrifices. I am under arrest now, but soon I will also join you in your struggle.”
That’s not all Chaudhry said, but it is as much as activists heard because Musharraf aides shut down the mobile phone network in Islamabad that carried the transmission before the former high-court judge could get out everything he wanted to say. At least here in the U.S., when we experience a dropped call, we are angrily comforted by the fact it’s due to a simple case of poor cellphone service coverage. Moreover, zapping mobile phone connections is not our style. This is a government of listeners. Sometimes it’s done with a wiretap warrant, sometimes not.