By Our Correspondent
WASHINGTON, Nov 10: Human rights activists and Pakistani-Americans demonstrated outside the White House during the weekend to demand an immediate end to emergency rule in Pakistan.
The activists first marched across Washington, braving rain and cold weather.
They distributed thousands of leaflets among the people leaving their offices for the weekend.The protesters also demanded that the Supreme Court be restored to its pre-emergency status and the chief justice and all other judges forced to quit be restored.
Speakers described emergency as “a rule of terror and lawlessness” and urged the Bush administration to help restore true democracy to Pakistan. Activists from major rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, also participated in the rally.
A similar demonstration was held outside the Pakistan Embassy in Washington while protest rallies were also held other US cities like Chicago and San Francisco.The protesters demanded that all those detained since the emergency be released.
They carried placards, demanding the release of Aitazaz Ahsan, Munir Malik, Asma Jehangir, Aziz Kurd, and Tariq Ahmad.
A statement issued after the rally outside the Pakistan Embassy, urged the US administration to use its influence to force President Musharraf to withdraw the emergency rule and step down.
The rally, organised by a group of Pakistani-American organisations in the US Capital, also urged the international community to sever all its ties to the Musharraf regime.
“This is not an emergency but martial law, which aims to stifle an independent judiciary and a free media that had begun to challenge Musharraf’s autocratic rule,” the statement said.
The protesters noted that Gen Musharraf’s decision to destroy vital institutions of his nation showed how desperate he was to hold on to power even at the cost of endangering Pakistan’s integrity and social harmony.
They warned the US administration not to buy Gen Musharraf’s claim that this action would help fight the war on terror more effectively.
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” the statement said.
“If Pakistan’s history is any indicator, his decision to impose martial law in the name of emergency will only strengthen the extremists.”
The statement also warned that if secular political elements in Pakistan were deprived of their rights to express themselves freely and to seek justice, they may be forced to take up arms and join the extremists to fight tyranny.
The protesters demanded that all curbs placed on the media be removed. The protesters urged the Bush administration to stop supporting an increasingly unpopular military dictator in favour of forces that wish Pakistan to become the people’s democracy its founding fathers dreamt of. “By supporting military regimes and autocratic rulers in the Islamic world, the Bush administration has further alienated the Muslim masses, thus hurting the war against terrorism that it professes to fight,” the statement said.
Dawn 11/Nov/07
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