Pakistanis protest in NYC

Pakistani residents of the New York metropolitan area and their supporters and friends demonstrated outside that country’s consulate in Manhattan Nov. 3 on the one-year anniversary of the arrest of Chief Justice of Pakistan Mr. Iftikhar Chaudhry and his sixty fellow judges of the Pakistani Superior Courts. That day, the dictator of Pakistan, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, imposed the equivalent of martial law and awoke a response from lawyers and judges that spread to the mass of the people and eventually led to Musharraf’s removal. The protestors, from the Pakistan-U.S. Freedom Fund, criticize the new president, Asif Zardari, for not fulfilling his promise to reinstate Chief Justice Chaudhry and all the other judges, and because he has not provided basic needs to the people of Pakistan. The organization also wants the U.S. to stop air strikes on Pakistani territory. Similar protests were called in other major world cities with significant Pakistani communities.

—Report and photo by Sara Flounders