HRCP slams abridgement of civil liberties
ISLAMABAD (November 09 2007): Syed Iqbal Haider, secretary general, Pakistan Human Rights Commission, has strongly protested abridgement of civil liberties in the country and also dubbed the PCO as martial law introduced under the garb of emergency.
Speaking to the media at the local office of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, in F 6/1 sector, the former federal law minister, Iqbal Haider, criticised the measures taken on last Saturday.
Haider urged the international community to keep pressure on President Musharraf until he rescinded the new anti-human rights law that takes away rights of the common man.
He cited arrests of thousands of lawyers, human rights activists, and media personnel as gross violations of human rights, and said the establishment is specially targeting lawyers and the media. Barristers Aitzaz Ahsan, Ali Ahmad Kurd and Munir Malik have been denied medical treatment in detention.
Criticising the oath of judges under the PCO, he said two of them were among those who passed orders in favour of the former occupants of Lal Masjid. Calling them as pliant judges, they were also Musharraf’s strong supporters.
Haider could not understand why the government was in negotiation with the dissident Maulana Fazlullah of Swat, Is it to patronise Talibanisation? he asked.
A police posse with three police vans, including women police, led by SHO Ashraf of Kohsar Police Station stood by outside the Commission’s office, during the news conference. However, the police did not intervene. A lady human right activist seen leaving the premises in her car before the start of the press conference remarked she feared the police might arrest them.
Source: Business Recorder
Date:11/9/2007
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