Pakistan's
January Polls
Already Rigged: UN Rights Envoy
By
P. Parameswaran
15 December,
2007
AFP
WASHINGTON
(AFP) - A UN human rights envoy on Thursday told US lawmakers
not to send any delegation to monitor the upcoming election in Pakistan,
claiming that it was already rigged by President Pervez Musharraf.
"There
is no point in monitoring the elections or watching the poll -- the
rigging has already happened," said Hina Jilani, a prominent Pakistani
attorney who is also the UN special envoy for human rights defenders.
She made
the remarks after lawmakers at a Congressional hearing on the political
crisis in Pakistan sought her opinion on the prospect of monitoring
the January 8 polls to elect a new parliament.
Jilani, co-founder
of the Human Rights Commission in Pakistan, charged that Musharraf,
who was expected to lift a five-week-old state of emergency on Saturday,
had already destroyed institutions such as the judiciary and the press.
Fearing that
the Supreme Court would disqualify him from running for re-election,
Musharraf sacked and detained independent-minded judges and lawyers
leaders who refused to accept his imposition of emergency rule.
"Freedom of assembly is totally curtailed, freedom of expression
is curtailed," Jilani said.
"Under
these conditions, the election that is going to take place on January
8 has very little credibility. Under Pakistan's constitution and the
law, the judiciary oversees the elections.
"A judiciary
that lacks the confidence of the people and has no credibility, how
do you think the elections are going to be credible?" Jilani asked
the lawmakers.
Earlier,
Democratic lawmakers Sheila Jackson Lee and Jim Moran told Jilani they
were considering the possibility of going to Pakistan as part of a Congressional
delegation to monitor the election process.
Moran said
there were however doubts among lawmakers when to go to Pakistan.
One Congressman
felt that "if they were to do it in the first two weeks of January,
it will show an implicit support for President Musharraf and, in effect,
the process of confirming his election."
There were
also doubts that if the delegation went after the election, the government
would be "using us to show American support -- bipartisan support
-- which may not be appropriate," Moran said.
"What
should we be doing?" he asked Jilani.
She replied:
"The world outside can help by analyzing and making itself more
aware of the situation in Pakistan and getting the facts correct because
only correct facts will allow people to understand the solution."
Jilani said
the civil society in Pakistan was becoming a critical watchdog striving
to bring about a stable political process.
"All
we ask the international community to do is to support us and further
our objectives rather than stand in our way," she said.
Citing Islamist
violence and what he said was an interfering judiciary, Musharraf imposed
emergency rule on November 3. The constitution was suspended, and thousands
of people were arrested across the country.
The head
of the Supreme Court was one of many judges given the sack. A new and
strict code of conduct effectively barred many media from criticizing
Musharraf or the armed forces.
Most of those
arrested have since been released but some prominent lawyers -- including
the president of the Supreme Court's bar association -- are still in
detention.
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