LAWYERS DEMAND LIFTING OF STATE OF EMERGENCY IN PAKISTAN:

Likens Pres. Musharraf to Pres. Arroyo

The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers [NUPL] condemns the continuing human rights violations in Pakistan, including the attacks against lawyers and judges under a state of emergency declared by Pres. Pervez Musharraf.    The emergency rule, declared by Pres. Musharraf to fight ‘terrorism’ and ‘judicial activism’, came in the heels of a series of bomb blasts that killed and maimed hundreds of people.  Thousands of people were brutally arrested including 1,500 lawyers. Eight lawyers including two women lawyers are facing false charges for treason.  State security forces attacked the Supreme Court, whose Chief Justice was previously sacked by Pres. Musharraf.   Human rights defenders and advocates were also attacked with the arrest and disappearance of members of rights groups monitoring the situation.

The human rights condition in Pakistan is akin to that prevailing in the Philippines today.  The blatant violation of Pakistan’s government of the people’s right to assembly and  expression and brutal repression of the right to life and liberty,  its disregard of laws, and its open undermining of judicial independence is no different from the EO 464, CPR, Proclamation 1017,  the extra judicial killings,  disappearances and other violations of constitutional and human and rights by Pres. Arroyo.

In the same manner that we condemn Pres. Gloria Arroyo’s blatant disregard of judicial decisions we demand that Pres. Musharraf respect the decisions of the Supreme Court of Pakistan finding his emergency rule unconstitutional.   We  demand that the state of emergency,  which was declared for no other reason than to maintain Pres. Musharraf’s hold to power, be lifted immediately.  We also demand that the government of Pakistan release  all those arrested for the mere exercise of their  constitutional rights, including members of the legal profession and the judiciary. 

            NUPL calls on members of the legal profession to actively condemn these brutal attacks on colleagues in Pakistan and show solidarity with those who are experiencing repression similar to that committed against the Filipino people by Pres. Gloria Arroyo.    NUPL urges Pres. Musharraf to respect human rights and allow the people to exercise their right to elect their President.  NUPL join hands with concerned lawyers worldwide in condemning the brutal repression in Pakistan including the attacks on members of the legal profession and the judiciary for the exercise of the constitutional rights.

Reference: Atty. Neri Javier Colmenares- Secretary General

Mobile No: 09178350459

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ILPS condemns Musharraf's declaration of emergency rule

and supports the just struggle  of the people of Pakistan

By Prof. Jose Maria Sison

Chairperson, International Coordinating Committee

International League of Peoples' Struggle

20 November 2007

The International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) condemns the declaration of emergency rule by Pakistan’s military ruler Gen. Pervez Musharraf and the further entrenchment  of barefaced fascist dictatorship on the people of Pakistan. We support the just struggle of the people of Pakistan for national and social liberation against the Musharraf fascist regime and its US imperialist master.

Gen. Musharraf has faced strong opposition the past months with a broad array of forces ranged against him.  He has been able to weather past challenges to his rule only because of his control over the military and because of US support.  George W. Bush considers Musharraf a key ally in the US global “war on terror” and continues to praise him as his partner in spreading “freedom”.   

Pakistan’s 610,000-member military is the eighth largest in the world. It has an annual expenditure of $2.435 billion, nearly 3% of Pakistan’s GDP. In the three years after 9/11, US military aid to Pakistan soared to $4.2 billion, compared to $9.1 million in the three years before the attacks. The total value of all American aid, including military, economic, and development assistance, to Pakistan since 9/11 is estimated at more than $10 billion. Pakistan now ranks third after Israel and Egypt among the biggest recipients of US aid.

The Bush-Musharraf tandem has meant the malicious use of the anti-terrorism slogan in order to justify the worst kinds of terrorism: the  US-NATO war of aggression

in Afghanistan and substantial parts of Pakistan and the state terrorism of the Musharraf regime against the Pakistani people.

Gen. Musharraf has allowed the U.S. to use Pakistan’s bases in anti-terrorism operations and to attack Pakistani communities, shared intelligence, helped identify and arrest suspected terrorists, and tightened the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan by deploying up to 80,000 Pakistani troops.

Among the broad masses of the people, there is  widespread sentiment against and opposition to Musharraf’s puppetry to US imperialism particularly in connection with the US “war on terror”.  This has served to stimulate the rise of a broad range of  opposition forces, including the Islamic, the bourgeois democratic and the revolutionary.

Since the 1999 coup that put him in power, Musharraf has ruled with an iron fist.  He has constantly tormented the bourgeois opposition.  He has put many of them behind bars without charges where they are maltreated and tortured. Journalists critical of the government have been harassed, threatened, arrested and detained. The government has banned and disrupted  anti-government rallies and demonstrations since October 2000.

More than one-third of the Pakistani population of 160 million live below the poverty line —13 percent survive on less than $1 a day.  Many people in the rural areas are impoverished peasants living in mud houses. Because of their dire economic situation and the political repression, the masses have grown very restive.    The social unrest has emboldened the broad range of opposition to challenge his authoritarian rule.

In March 2007, Musharraf removed chief justice Iftakar Mohammed Chaudhry from office. He took punitive action against Chaudhry for deciding to hear cases involving disappearances of people detained by the notorious intelligence agencies, as well as constitutional challenges to Musharraf’s rule.  Street demonstrations protesting Chaudry’s ouster led to Chaudhry’s reinstatement in July.

Wishing to reverse the ever worsening internal political turmoil in the whole of Pakistan, coincident with the resurgence of the Taliban and the anti-imperialist forces in the Afghan-Pakistani border areas, the US has pushed the formula of keeping Musharraf as “civilian” president, making him resign from the position of chief of staff of the armed forces, holding parliamentary elections in January next year and making Benazir Bhutto his prime minister.

But like any puppet Musharraf has relative autonomy from his imperialist master and wants to secure his autocratic power against his actual and potential rivals and uses to his advantage the increasingly difficult position of the US in Iraq and Afghanistan and its desperate need for a brutal puppet like him. It is all a matter of hypocrisy for the US government to pretend being for a democratic Pakistan while in fact the US needs state terrorism in Pakistan to support the US war of aggression, especially in Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan.

The declaration of emergency rule shows Musharraf’s determination to keep his despotic power at all costs.  The illusion of democracy that the US wishes to conjure in Pakistan is dispelled by martial rule, the suspension of the constitution and the replacement of the Supreme Court by a set of Musharaff appointees.These  aggravate the  political oppression and economic exploitation of the broad masses of the people.  But these also result in favorable conditions for the people's struggle for national and social revolution and the rise of revolutionary forces against US imperialism and the local reactionary forces.

All freedom-loving peoples of the world must condemn the unbridled state terrorism and barefaced fascist dictatorship of Musharraf as well as the continuing policy of the   US to prop up the widely detested Musharraf regime and condone all its fascist crimes in line with the overriding US policy of aggression and plunder in South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East.

The people of Pakistan deserve all possible moral and political support  for their  just revolutionary resistance for national liberation and democracy against US imperialism and the Musharraf fascist regime, the religious fundamentalists and other rabid reactionaries.### 

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National Union of Peoples' Lawyers
3F Erythrina Bldg., Maaralin corner Matatag Sts. Central District, Quezon City, Philippines
Tel.No:920-6660 / 927- 2812 Email:nupl2007@gmail.com /nuplphilippines@yahoo.com

LAWYERS CONDEMN ATTACK ON
COLLEAGUES IN PAKISTAN:
Demand Lifting of Emergency Rule

The National Union of Peoples' Lawyers [NUPL] condemns the brutal arrest of at least 1,500 lawyers in Pakistan who were merely exercising their right to assemble and protest against the emergency rule imposed by Pakistani military chief and President Pervez Musharraf. The firing of teargas by the military on the Supreme Court of Pakistan is totally unacceptable because it is a blatant attack on the independence of the judiciary. We also condemn Pres. Musharraf's declaration of emergency rule to quell 'judicial activism' and terrorism as nothing more than a blatant violation of the Pakistani peoples' civil and political rights in his attempt to maintain his position as President.

NUPL urges Pres. Musharraf to respect the rights of members of the legal profession, even those opposed to his continuing hold to power as these are guaranteed rights under international law. Section 3 of the Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, adopted by the 1990 UN Congress on Prevention of Crime states that :

3. Lawyers like other citizens are entitled to freedom of expression, belief, association and assembly. In particular, they shall have the right to take part in public discussion of matters concerning the law, the administration of justice and the promotion and protection of human rights and to join or form local, national or international organizations x x x
 

Section 1 of The Basic Principles on the Independence of the Judiciary endorsed by the UN General Assembly Resolution 40/32 in 1985 also requires governments' respect for the judiciary:

1. The independence of the judiciary shall be guaranteed by the State x x x It is the duty of all governmental and other institutions to respect and observe the independence of the judiciary.

NUPL calls on members of the legal profession in the Philippines to actively condemn these brutal attacks on colleagues in Pakistan and show solidarity to those who are experiencing repression similar to that committed against Filipino lawyers by Pres. Gloria Arroyo. Twenty lawyers and twelve judges have been killed since Pres. Arroyo came to power in 2001. More than 38 cases of harassment and attacks against lawyers have been recorded including the harassment of a lawyers rally protesting Pres. Arroyo's declaration of emergency rule last year.

NUPL, a national organization of human rights lawyers, urges Pres. Musharraf to lift the emergency rule, respect human rights and allow the people to exercise their right to elect their President. NUPL join hands with concerned lawyers worldwide in condemning this latest attack on members of the legal profession for the exercise of the right to assembly and expression.###

The National Union of Peoples' Lawyers was founded on September 15, 2007 as a nationwide voluntary association of human rights lawyers in the Philippines, committed to the defense, protection, and promotion of human rights, especially of the poor and the oppressed.

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Picket rally in Hongkong

Photos courtesy of ILPS-HK

Press Release
15 November 2007

HK groups call for repeal of Martial Law in Pakistan

US military aid also shares blame for rights violations

The fascist rule of General Pervez Musharraf must end.

This was the call of local Hong Kong groups in a protest action led by the International League of Peoples' Struggle Hong Kong today, November 15, in front of the Pakistan Consulate General.

"All freedom-loving and democratic people must stand up against the repression and brutality of the Musharraf regime to the people of Pakistan. Civil liberties must be defended, activists must be freed and democracy must rule," declared Ramon Bultron, spokesperson of ILPS-HK.

The action in HK was part of the regionally-coordinated protests led by the Asia and Oceania chapter of the ILPS.

In recent weeks, human rights advocates and progressive people around the world have condemned the arrest of oppositionists and the declaration of Martial rule by erstwhile Pakistan dictator.

"As with other despots frantic to hold on to power, Musharraf has resorted to viscious violation of the Pakistan people's rights," Bultron added.

According to Bultron, the declaration of a state of emergency of Musharraf was the authoritarian regime's last resort to consolidate its power shaken by protests over economic and political issues in the country.

Bultron also denounced the long-standing support of the US to the militarist Musharraf government that was one of its staunchest supporters in the Afghanistan invasion and its ally in maintaining a stronghold in South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East.

"The US government's condemnation of Musharraf's martial law lacks sincerity given that it has greatly increased its military aid to Pakistan to US$4.2 billion in the three years after 9/11 as compared to the US$9.1 million in the three years prior to the attack," Bultron remarked.

ILPS-HK challenged the US government to fully withdraw its support from the Musharraf government and cease from maneuvering to maintain the general's power under a façade of democratic reforms.

"The hypocrisy of the Bush government that is in tandem with Musharraf must also be fully exposed. For in the end, Bush's interests remain in the Pakistan government's continued support to its war on terror as well maintain a stronghold in the said region," Bultron stated.
 

ILPS-HK urged bigger and more actions to pressure Musharraf to lift the martial rule until the authoritarian regime in the country is completely dismantled.

"Musharraf shall go down a similar path of Asia's dictators – ouster by the people fighting for genuine freedom and democracy," Bultron concluded.
 

For reference: Ramon Bultron, Spokesperson
Tel. No.: 94773141

STATEMENTS

■   International rights lawyers from IAPL join global condemnation of attacks on lawyers, judges and activists in Pakistan; calls for end to martial rule, end to support of US "War on Terror"

■   Letter to the Pakistani ambassador to the Philippines from the IBP and NUPL

■   Bayan's Statement of Solidarity for the People of Pakistan
Against the Emergency Rule of Musharaff

■   Asian Farmers Condemn Martial Rule in Pakistan

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