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Imran Khan freed from jail

ISLAMABAD: The former cricketer and leader of the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf, Imran Khan, was freed from jail on Wednesday as the Pakistan government announced the release of 2,000 more political activists jailed after the November 3 emergency.

Mr. Khan, who was arrested from the Punjab University campus last Wednesday and charged under the anti-terrorism act, had reportedly begun a hunger-strike at the Dera Ghazi Khan jail. The ex-cricket superstar’s sisters were visiting him at the jail when the news of his release came.

A Law Ministry official told local media that the government had released over 5,000 political prisoners by Wednesday evening and that the remaining 600 would be freed soon.

Under immense pressure from the international community, including a possible explusion by the Commonwealth for the second time since 1999, and with the threat of election boycott by Opposition parties, including the Pakistan People’s Party, President Pervez Musharraf appeared poised to lift the emergency soon.

Media analysts said the decision may come before the weekend, once the Supreme Court, reconstituted with handpicked judges by Gen. Musharraf after he declared emergency rule, decided the cases against his candidacy in the October 6 presidential election and, separately, against the imposition of the emergency.

The perception was strengthened when Gen. Musharraf rushed back from a visit to Saudi Arabia ahead of schedule and promulgated an ordinance amending the Constitution, in exercise of his powers under the Provisional Constitutional Order, giving legal immunity to his actions of the last three weeks.

The ordinance adds a new article to the Constitution validating and affirming the Proclamation of Emergency, all President’s Orders, Ordinances, Chief of Army Staff Orders, including the Provisional Constitution Order, the oath of judges under the PCO, and all other laws made between after the imposition of the emergency until it is revoked.

The ordinance says these “are accordingly affirmed, adopted and declared to have been validly made” and “shall not be called in question in any court or forum on any ground whatsoever.”

Meanwhile, Foreign Office spokesman Mohammed Sadiq confirmed that Prime Minister Muhammedmian Soomro spoke over telephone to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Tuesday, asking the Commonwealth to delay its decision regarding the expulsion of Pakistan, and assuring him that while there was emergency rule, “everything is being done according to the Constitution.”

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