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International Bar Association condemns targeting of lawyers by Pakistan authorities
November 26, 2007

 

The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) today condemned the continuing arrest and detention of lawyers in Pakistan, despite the Government’s claims that it was easing emergency rule.

‘It was claimed that the deposed Chief Justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, had been released from house arrest,’ said Dr Phillip Tahmindjis, IBA Programme Lawyer. ‘However, when lawyers went to see him at his home last Tuesday they were prevented by the police from doing so and one of them, Athar Minallah, was later arrested without charge.’

Many lawyers remain in custody in Pakistan, including the President of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Aitzaz Ahsan.

‘It appears to be more than a mere coincidence that Mr Minallah and Mr Ahsan have both been critical of the government,’ Dr Tahmindjis added. ‘Mr Ahsan was one of the Chief Justice’s defence counsel.’

The IBAHRI is monitoring the situation to ascertain whether lawyers who supported the Chief Justice in their professional capacity are being particularly targeted.

For further information/expanded commentary, please contact:

Romana St Matthew - Daniel

Press Office

International Bar Association
10th Floor
1 Stephen Street
London W1T 1AT
United Kingdom
Direct Line: +44 (0)20 7691 6837
Switchboard: + 44 (0)20 7691 6868

Fax: + 44 (0)20 7691 6544
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.ibanet.org

Related Recommended Reading:

Click here to download the executive summary of the IBAHRI report: The struggle to maintain an independent judiciary: a report on the attempt to remove the Chief Justice of Pakistan.

Click here to download the full IBAHRI report: The struggle to maintain an independent judiciary: a report on the attempt to remove the Chief Justice of Pakistan.

About the International Bar Association

- the global voice of the legal profession

The International Bar Association (IBA), established in 1947, is the world's leading organisation of international legal practitioners, bar associations and law societies. The IBA influences the development of international law reform and shapes the future of the legal profession throughout the world. It has a membership of 30,000 individual lawyers and more than 195 bar associations and law societies spanning all continents.

Grouped into two divisions – the Legal Practice Division and the Public and Professional Interest Division – the IBA covers all practice areas and professional interests, providing members with access to leading experts and up-to-date information. Through the various committees of the divisions, the IBA enables an interchange of information and views as to laws, practices and professional responsibilities relating to the practice of law around the globe. Additionally, the IBA’s high-quality publications and world-class conferences provide unrivalled professional development and network-building opportunities for international legal practitioners and professional associates.

The IBA’s Bar Issues Commission provides an invaluable forum for the IBA’s member bar associations and law societies to discuss all matters relating to law at an international level.

The IBA's Human Rights Institute promotes, protects and enforces human rights under a just rule of law, and works to preserve the independence of the judiciary and the legal profession worldwide.

Other institutions established by the IBA include the Southern Africa Litigation Centre and the International Legal Assistance Consortium.

Contact information:

International Bar Association
10th Floor
1 Stephen Street
London W1T 1AT
United Kingdom

tel: +44 (0)20 7691 6868
fax: +44 (0)20 7691 6544
website: www.ibanet.org

About the Human Rights Institute

In 1995, the International Bar Association (IBA) established the Human Rights Institute (HRI) under the Honorary Presidency of Nelson Mandela. The HRI is now a leading voice in the promotion of the rule of law worldwide.

The HRI works across the IBA, helping to promote, protect and enforce human rights under a just rule of law, and to preserve the independence of the judiciary and the legal profession worldwide.

The HRI:

· undertakes fact-finding missions leading to long-term technical assistance programmes;

· develops capacity-building programmes to assist bar associations and law societies;

· sends trial observers to monitor the extent to which trials adhere to regional and international fair trial standards;

· organises human rights training for lawyers and judges;

· liaises closely with international and regional human rights organisations and

· produces newsletters and other publications.

Human Rights Institute
International Bar Association
10th Floor, 1 Stephen Street
London W1T 1AT, United Kingdom

Tel: + 44 (0)20 7691 6868
Fax: + 44 (0)20 7691 6544
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.ibanet.org

General Musharraf controls the media and judiciary in Pakistan, so the true scale of his brutality goes unreported
Talat Hussain
The Guardian, November 26, 2007

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/talat_hussain/2007/11/half_the_story.html

After eight years mismanaging Pakistan, a nuclear-armed state faced with the demon of extremist violence, General Pervez Musharraf wants to stick around for another five, this time in the guise of a so-called civilian president. To that end, he has broken every conceivable principle of law, manipulated politics and wrecked hopes for a free election.

To escape public censure for these draconian acts, he has chained the independent media. News channels have been shut down or, in case of the one I represent, forced to take their current affairs shows off air. The general's close aides instruct owners to keep outspoken reporters on a tight leash or risking having their licences cancelled. Fearful of multi-million pound losses, most have fallen in line.

My show, Live with Talat, has been the first casualty of this effective blackmail. The terms for staying on the air would have been hilarious if they weren't so damning of our fundamental rights. No criticism of Musharraf; no criticism of anyone he nominates to perform any task; and no criticism of the judges he has handpicked for endorsement as president for another term. Surviving reporters have to mind their words and even their body language: a harsh word, a glare, a shrug or a finger-wag are enough to justify closure of the channel.

Barred from the airwaves, we talk show hosts have taken to the streets. This week we started holding our shows on the roadside. Hundreds of people come and listen to the lively debates, which are not televised. But even this is unacceptable. Last Friday one such roadshow had to be cancelled after the host channel's owner threatened to fire anyone attempting to arrange it. It was obvious where his orders came from.

Across the country journalists protesting these draconian regulations face batons and brute force. Last week in Karachi, Pakistan's financial nerve centre, police beat journalists and rounded up over 150, many of who were dragged from inside the press club. Some have been charged with serious crimes and are now on the wanted list.

Worse, all avenues of judicial protection against such brutalities are closed. The judiciary is packed with Musharraf's men. They have replaced judges of great calibre who tried to enforce the law against Musharraf, who in turn responded by imposing his second martial law on November 3.

Since then, 60 dissenting judges from the higher judiciary have been under house arrest. The home of the chief justice, Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, is closed to visitors.

Lawyers critical of the general are in jail including Munir Malik, a former president of the supreme court. Three days ago, Malik was taken from a centuries-old dungeon, where he had spent three weeks in solitary confinement, to hospital, where doctors said he was suffering from kidney failure. His crime was to lead the lawyers' movement against Musharraf's purge of principled judges.

The media cannot fully report these abominable events because it is operating in a climate of fear. Pakistanis are not being allowed to see even a fraction of the dreadful conditions around them. They do not know how the dictatorship has pushed the country to the brink of disaster. How there is no "emergency" in the country, but actually a martial law, because Musharraf, as the army chief, has shoved the constitution out of the window.

Meanwhile on the official media, Musharraf waxes lyrical in self-praise. He talks about nurturing democracy and stabilising Pakistan. He justifies his martial rule on flimsy grounds: to protect the country; to prevent international terrorists from threatening world peace; and, incredibly, to build genuine democracy - the same argument he used when he took power eight years ago.

The whole world agrees that Pakistan can be salvaged only through democracy. But there can be no democracy without free media. And there can be no free media as long Musharraf continues to put himself above the law and the constitution.

Musharaf talks about Media limits
The News, November 26, 2007
http://thenews.jang.com.pk/print3.asp?id=11389

RAWALPINDI: The media cannot be allowed to promote disintegration and push the nation towards despondency, President General Pervez Musharraf said on Sunday.

Speaking at the ceremony held to mark founding day of the state-run television, General Musharraf said the creation of an impression that freedom for media has been achieved through struggle is incorrect because the decision to give independence to media was taken by the government.

The president said there should be freedom of expression and media should not be limited to state-run television only. Rather more television channels should be launched in the private sector, he added.

General Musharraf said it was the idea of the government to have more channels in the country and it intentionally took steps for the independence of media under a strategy. He said that he believes in the freedom of media but also believes in responsibility along with the freedom.

The president said that some elements and channels are spreading despondency and division in the nation. He said he was happy that almost all channels had gone on air. He said that the government prepared the code of conduct keeping in view the international laws, including the western countries.

General Musharraf said the western media does not show pictures of dead bodies while reporting on war in Iraq, Afghanistan and other places but all such things are happening in Pakistan. Such scenes terrify people so code of conduct was extremely necessary.
Punish the Journalists, gag the press, the party is on
Kamal Siddiqi
The News, November 26, 2007
http://thenews.jang.com.pk/print1.asp?id=82779

What is it that the press is paying for? Why is it that the government continues to train its guns on the media and is in a mood to teach them a lesson. The Pakistani press has been fiercely independent more so because of the extended years it has spent fighting against dictatorship and the tyranny of our rulers and their spooks. And yet, journalists are routinely harassed, monitored, arrested, beaten, jailed, tortured and killed. While the rulers look the other way, one worries when the people also seem to also cast a blind eye.

The people have fallen into the trap set by the government of the day. Armchair analysts are saying that the media “got what it deserved “because” it had gone out of control”. Nothing could be further from the truth. The week started with the depressing news that the widow of Hayatullah Khan, a journalist who was kidnapped and killed last year, was also murdered after some unidentified persons planted a bomb under her room at her house in North Waziristan agency. Hayatullah Khan leaves behind five children. His crime? He reported truthfully what was happening in the tribal areas, and paid a heavy price for it.

His wife’s crime? She was vocal in trying to unearth the killers of her husband. Did they get what they deserved? In the eyes of those in power, possibly yes.

On Tuesday last, the attack on journalists protesting the curbs on the media outside the Karachi Press Club was vicious. They were lathi-charged and beaten by a police only too happy to teach lessons, as told to them by their officers. What one finds ridiculous is that not only were hundreds of policemen deployed at the spot, there were an equal number of Rangers. They too were raring to go. Is it not ironic that our law enforcing agencies seem most successful when they are fighting battles with their own people? It is a matter of national shame. Why are we spending billions on our law enforcers? So that the police chiefs and the Ranger DGs can live lives of luxury and their force can beat the living daylights out of journalists and members of civil society? Something is wrong somewhere.

One hundred and eighty media persons were arrested or courted arrest that day, this correspondent included. As we were taken in a police van from one Karachi police station to another, it became apparent that the lock-ups were full and could not accommodate more. The crime of these journalists? That they want to be able to freely report what is happening in the country.

However, better sense prevailed in the form of the Sindh Governor, who ordered their release. The new home minister Akhtar Zamin, a retired army man, was bent on some punishment. The police officials at the thana level were not at all happy. Their take was simple: governments come and go while journalists and policemen stay where they are.

The people were unmoved. One of the biggest misconceptions that our public seem to nurture is that this is a battle of the media only.This is the war to restore Geo TV to the airwaves. It is not. It is the battle of the right to know and to be informed. By gagging the media, Islamabad wants to set the news agenda like the good old days. And it has partially succeeded in this by making deals independently with the media moguls. What one finds surprising is that those media groups who were once cited as bastions of press independence have broken ranks and bent over backwards. The Quaid would not be amused.

In all this, the Great Leader continued to have his way. It was a good week. The Supreme Court on Friday validated the imposition of emergency and the promulgation of the PCO and justified all the steps taken after the emergency was imposed. This is the same emergency that the president admitted was illegal in a candid interview with a foreign media organization. On Wednesday, the Great Leader had issued an ordinance that the emergency could not be challenged in a court of law, pre-empting any future move that would call in to question this extra-constitutional step. On Friday, the SC dismissed the last of six petitions challenging the candidature of General Musharraf for the office of president. Why is none of this any surprise? But one cant say anything, we are living in emergency plus.

The Americans have been their usual smart selves. Never before have we seen such direct interference in the affairs of our country. But this doesn’t seem to be affecting our national standing in the eyes of those who matter in Islamabad. US Deputy Secretary of State, the blue blooded John Negroponte, urged General Musharraf to lift emergency, release political prisoners and stop banning the media. On Sunday, this message was given. By Tuesday, 3416 detainees had been released.

American diplomats have been active – visiting politicians, media organizations and the press clubs. In a rare show, the government left it to the PTV to attack the diplomats.

Now to our caretaker cabinet. One that is charged with overseeing free and fair elections in January. That is a joke. Most of those who have been given slots are either personal loyalists of the president or candidates of the parties that form the ruling coalition. We have among this august band of men and women, a former PPP senator who has forcibly occupied the house of a widow in Islamabad. The senator left the PPP after Ms Bhutto reprimanded him for forcibly occupying the house. Now he is with the merry men. Another cabinet minister is a vet by profession who may not have excelled in his practice but did have the knack to put up billboards in strategic locations of the federal capital praising General Musharraf. Now he is a minister. Another minister is accused of human trafficking under the guise of human rights. Yet another minister is a media baron whose TV channel was the first to bend over backwards.

The provincial cabinets are no better. One person has been given a slot because he is the husband of an important TV personality. Another because he himself hosted a TV show that was in favour of the General. There is a gentleman who has headed the cricket board, the national airline and is now a member of the cabinet. Jack of all, master of none. The usual families and their progeny have taken important cabinet slots.

By no means is the caretaker government independent or able. What one wonders is whether a cabinet position is all that matters to this band of questionable characters. Is there not an iota of self respect left in our “enlightened” classes?

A word of warning has been given by a top provincial bureaucrat. Transfers and postings have started to ensure that elections are “smooth and trouble free.” This should be noted with great concern.

Officials are being posted that are loyal to those in power. Polling stations will be fixed and results will be manipulated. The same old game is being played all over again. Another point of worry is the attempt at inducting thousands into government jobs at a time when the government is intent on downsizing. Jobs in the police are being filled with loyalists. Where are we heading?

The week brings us the possibility of General (retired) Pervez Musharraf, president of Pakistan. It is something that many people have been looking forward to for a number of different reasons. Meanwhile for the media, the struggle continues.

Email: [email protected]

 
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