Musharraf
Has Lost His Marbles
And Is Targeting Progressives
By Asma Jahangir
06 November, 2007
The
Independent
The
situation in the country is uncertain. There is a strong crackdown on
the press and lawyers. A majority of the judges of the Supreme Court
and four judges of the High Court have not taken their oaths. The Chief
Justice is under house arrest (unofficially). The president of the Supreme
Court Bar, Aitzaz Ahsan, and two former presidents, Mr Muneer Malik
and Tariq Mahmood have been imprisoned for one month under the preventive
detention laws.
The president of the Lahore
High Court, Ahsan Bhoon, and former bar leader Ali Ahmed Kurd have also
been arrested. The police are looking for six other lawyers, including
the president of the Peshawar and Karachi bar. The president of the
Lahore bar is also in hiding. Scores of political leaders havebeen arrested.
Yesterday, I was put under
house arrest for 90 days and I was given a copy of my detention order.
Ironically the President
(who has lost his marbles) said that he had to clamp down on the press
and the judiciary to curb terrorism. Those he has arrested are progressive,
secular- minded people while the terrorists are offered negotiations
and ceasefires.
Lawyers and civil society
will challenge the government and the scene is likely to get uglier.
We want friends of Pakistan to urge the United States administration
to stop all support of the unstable dictator, as his lust for power
is bringing the country close to a worse form of civil strife. It is
now time for the international community to insist on preventive measures,
otherwise cleaning up the mess may take decades.
There are already several
hundred internally displaced persons and the space for civil society
has hopelessly shrunk.
We believe that Musharraf
has to be taken out of the equation and a government of national reconciliation
put in place. It must be backed by the military. Short of this there
are no realistic solutions - although there are no guarantees that this
would work.
Asma Jahangir
is a leading Pakistani lawyer, head of the Pakistan Commission for Human
Rights, and a special rapporteur of the UN Commission on Human Rights
on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. She was heavily involved
in the movement for the restoration of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry
earlier this year. Ms Jahangir sent this message from her home in Lahore.
© 2007 The Independent
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