With the media muzzled, citizens are blogging and using sites like Facebook to spread news and organize "flash" protests against Musharraf's emergency rule.
On Nov. 7 at 2 p.m., about 1,000 students of the Lahore University of Management Sciences gathered to protest the imposition of virtual martial law by President Pervez Musharraf. The students, mostly children of Pakistan's intelligentsia and middle classes, were horrified to hear that police had broken into a peaceful meeting inside the premises of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and dragged away over 70 of Lahore's best minds, including lawyer and human rights activist Asma Jehangir, and locked them in jail or put them under house arrest. The students decided to participate in the protests.
That's when the blogging began. On Nov. 5, the Emergency Times (and an attendant Wikipedia article) appeared. It declared itself "an independent Pakistani student initiative against injustice and oppression," which gave readers a regular update and comments on the emergency, and student activities against it across Pakistan.
Facebook users joined in. Under Event Info, the Students Protest for a Free Pakistan put out the word to students of Islamabad's Hamdard University to gather outside the college, in support of other protesting students at LUMS, as well as Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad and Punjab University in Lahore, all simultaneously at 2 p.m. on Nov. 7.
Some Facebook Groups against Emergency Rule:
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