VOA常速英语2007年-Challenges to Musharraf Presidency Expected to

By Claudia Blume
Hong Kong
13 December 2007

A senior Pakistani lawyer says his colleagues will try to challenge the legitimacy¹ of President Musharraf's re-election when Mr. Musharraf lifts the country's state of emergency. Claudia Blume reports from VOA's Asia News Center in Hong Kong.

Abrar Hasan, a senior lawyer at Pakistan's Supreme² Court, said in Hong Kong on Thursday that if President Musharraf ends the state of emergency as expected on Saturday and the constitution is restored, the country's lawyers are planning to challenge the legitimacy of his re-election in court.

"Then we will be able to agitate³ these questions before a court of law, that he was not a validly⁵ nominated candidate, he could not have been elected, he was not in power to send 40 judges to their homes, he was not empowered to arrest lawyers, he was not empowered to do all these things, he had not authority to occupy the presidency," said Hasan.

Before Mr. Musharraf declared a state of emergency and suspended the constitution in October, he was awaiting a ruling by the Supreme Court on whether his recent re-election was valid⁴.

Reports from Pakistan say the justices were preparing to rule against him, and this played a role in the emergency decree. One of his first acts after the declaration was to purge⁶ the country's judiciary.

At least 27 senior judges were formally retired⁷, among them one of Mr. Musharraf's fiercest critics, Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudhry. The retired judges were replaced with Musharraf allies, who soon ruled that the election had been valid.

During street protests that followed the emergency decree, several hundred lawyers were arrested and detained nationwide.

Abrar Hasan was one of them. He says he spent 16 days in a Karachi prison. He says most of the other lawyers have by now been released following international pressure. But at least three are still under house arrest, including Tariq Mahmood, the former president of Pakistan's Supreme Court Bar Association.

Parliamentary elections are scheduled for January, nominally⁸ to restore democracy eight years after Mr. Musharraf, as head of the army, took power in a coup⁹. But Hasan says elections cannot be free and fair under the current circumstances.

"The impacts of these arrests in fact has been very negative on the judiciary," he said. "They now are more or less compliant¹⁰, they comply with everything - therefore we suspect that under these circumstances, it will not be free and fair elections in the country."

Hasan says most of Pakistan's lawyers have vowed¹¹ to continue to work against President Musharraf until he reinstates the judges he deposed¹² for challenging his re-election.

On Thursday, about a thousand lawyers rallied in the eastern city of Lahore, while 800 held a similar rally in the city of Multan.

1 legitimacy   

n.合法，正当

参考例句：

• The newspaper was directly challenging the government's legitimacy.报纸直接质疑政府的合法性。
• Managing from the top down,we operate with full legitimacy.我们进行由上而下的管理有充分的合法性。

2 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

3 agitate   

vi.(for,against)煽动，鼓动；vt.搅动

参考例句：

• They sent agents to agitate the local people.他们派遣情报人员煽动当地的民众。
• All you need to do is gently agitate the water with a finger or paintbrush.你只需要用手指或刷子轻轻地搅动水。

4 valid   

adj.有确实根据的；有效的；正当的，合法的

参考例句：

• His claim to own the house is valid.他主张对此屋的所有权有效。
• Do you have valid reasons for your absence?你的缺席有正当理由吗？

5 validly   

正当地，妥当地

参考例句：

• There are many ways of doing science validly appropriate in different situations. 在不同场合有很多种方式正当地搞科学。
• This may not validly be done. 这个也许得不到有效的处理。

6 purge   

n.整肃，清除，泻药，净化；vt.净化，清除，摆脱；vi.清除，通便，腹泻，变得清洁

参考例句：

• The new president carried out a purge of disloyal army officers.新总统对不忠诚的军官进行了清洗。
• The mayoral candidate has promised to purge the police department.市长候选人答应清洗警察部门。

7 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

8 nominally   

在名义上，表面地； 应名儿

参考例句：

• Dad, nominally a Methodist, entered Churches only for weddings and funerals. 爸名义上是卫理公会教徒，可只去教堂参加婚礼和葬礼。
• The company could not indicate a person even nominally responsible for staff training. 该公司甚至不能指出一个名义上负责职员培训的人。

9 coup   

n.政变；突然而成功的行动

参考例句：

• The monarch was ousted by a military coup.那君主被军事政变者废黜了。
• That government was overthrown in a military coup three years ago.那个政府在3年前的军事政变中被推翻。

10 compliant   

adj.服从的，顺从的

参考例句：

• I don't respect people who are too compliant.我看不起那种唯命是从，唯唯诺诺的人。
• For years I had tried to be a compliant and dutiful wife.几年来，我努力做一名顺从和尽职尽职的妻子。

11 vowed   

起誓，发誓（vow的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• He vowed quite solemnly that he would carry out his promise. 他非常庄严地发誓要实现他的诺言。
• I vowed to do more of the cooking myself. 我发誓自己要多动手做饭。

12 deposed   

v.罢免( depose的过去式和过去分词 )；（在法庭上）宣誓作证

参考例句：

• The president was deposed in a military coup. 总统在军事政变中被废黜。
• The head of state was deposed by the army. 国家元首被军队罢免了。 来自《简明英汉词典》