Pakistan coalition partner to bring impeachment action against Musharraf News
Pakistan coalition partner to bring impeachment action against Musharraf

[JURIST] Officials from Pakistani co-ruling party Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) [party website] will soon present an impeachment motion against President Pervez Musharraf, a PML-N MP told a National Assembly [official website] meeting Sunday. PML-N and coalition partner Pakistan People's Party (PPP) [party website] officials have disagreed [JURIST report] on how to limit or amend Musharraf's powers, with the PML-N generally favoring resignation or impeachment and the PPP favoring working with Musharraf to improve the country's political system. However, after Musharraf declared [Dawn report] that he would neither step down nor go into exile, PPP leaders took a tougher stance, stating that Musharraf was only president by default and warning that if he did not step down, the parliament would impeach him [The News report]. So far 48 parliament officials have signed the motion for impeachment, which could be tabled within the next two weeks. Zee News has more.

Last Sunday, party leaders released a 10-point charge sheet [JURIST report; Dawn backgrounder] detailing Musharraf's alleged misuse of his executive powers, including November's declaration of emergency rule [text, PDF] and the subsequent removal of judges from the Supreme Court of Pakistan [court website]. PML-N officials recently supported a protest march by members of the Pakistani lawyers' movement [NYT backgrounder], which reached the Parliament House in the capital Islamabad on Friday night and which will likely continue until the judges are reinstated [JURIST reports]. Last week PML-N leader and former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif [JURIST news archive] called for Musharraf to be tried for treason [JURIST report], labeling him a traitor disloyal to Pakistan. Sharif also said that Musharraf should be punished for the "damage" he has done to Pakistan in the years since he led a military coup [BBC backgrounder] and unseated Sharif in 1999.

THIS DAY @ LAW

US suffragists formed Equal Rights Party, named Presidential candidate

On September 20, 1884, a group of American suffragists formed the Equal Rights Party in San Francisco, dedicated to "equal and exact justice to every class of our citizens, without distinction of color, sex, or nationality" and in support of the proposition that "the laws of the several states be so amended that women will be recognized as voters, and their property-rights made equal with that of the male population, to the end that they may become self-supporting - rather than a dependent class." Read the full text of the first platform of the Equal Rights Party. The party immediately nominated Mrs. Belva Lockwood for US President and Marietta Snow for Vice-President. Grover Cleveland won that election, but Lockwood was included in a number of presidential primaries and is recorded to have won some 4149 votes from the male voters of the time.

Catholic Church tries Galileo for heresy

On September 20, 1633, the Roman Catholic Church tried Galileo Galilei on charges of heresy. Galileo was brought before the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith for his assertion that the Earth orbits the Sun. He was sentenced to spend the rest of his life under house arrest. Read documents from the trial of Galileo.

Suffragists formed Equal Rights Party, named Presidential candidate

On September 20, 1884, a group of suffragists formed the Equal Rights Party in San Francisco, dedicated to "equal and exact justice to every class of our citizens, without distinction of color, sex, or nationality" and in support of the proposition that "the laws of the several states be so amended that women will be recognized as voters, and their property-rights made equal with that of the male population, to the end that they may become self-supporting - rather than a dependent class."
Read the full text of the first platform of the Equal Rights Party.

The party immediately nominated Mrs. Belva Lockwood for US President and Marietta Snow for Vice-President. Grover Cleveland won that election, but Lockwood was included in a number of presidential primaries, and is recorded to have won some 4149 votes from the male voters of the time.