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Pakistan Opposition leader released

— Photo: AP

Opposition leader Javed Hashmi at the district court in Islamabad in this 2003 file photo.

ISLAMABAD: Two weeks after reinstating the Chief Justice, Pakistan’s Supreme Court dished out another setback to President Pervez Musharraf by freeing a senior Opposition leader imprisoned in October 2003 charged with inciting a mutiny in the Pakistan Army.

Suspending the sentence of Javed Hashmi, a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary ordered that the acting president of the Nawaz Sharif-led Pakistan Muslim League (N) “be released forthwith”.

The order set off jubilant scenes outside the Supreme Court. PML(N) workers shouted “Go Musharraf Go” and raised slogans praising Mr. Hashmi’s courage.

“The injustice done to Javed Hashmi for the last so many years has finally been corrected. His release is good news for democracy, and we hope to continue the movement that has been started off by the lawyers and political workers for rule of law and constitutional supremacy,” said PML (N) chairman Raja Zafrul Haq.

Mr. Hashmi, a bitter critic of Gen. Musharraf and a firebrand speaker, was convicted in 2004 for reading out at a press conference the contents of a letter that the court ruled was an incitement for a revolt in the army.

The letter, on a military letterhead, was purportedly written by disgruntled army officers and contained allegations of corruption in the Pakistan Army. It also demanded an enquiry into the 1999 Kargil operation. The letter was ruled to be a forgery.

The order freeing him came a few hours before a meeting of the Pakistan Army’s corps, chaired by Gen. Musharraf, reiterated its backing “to the federal government for continuation of progress as an enlightened, moderate and economically strong nation,” according to a military release.

Gen. Musharraf told the conference that extremism and militancy were the biggest challenges facing the country, and that no effort would be spared to “eradicate this menace and ensure the sustainability of economic progress”.

The meeting also discussed the overall security situation with special focus on the north-west tribal areas, and reviewed the operational preparedness of the army.

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