New Pakistan govt must free judges: Rights watchdog
Pakistan's new government must swiftly release all the top judges President Pervez Musharraf detained last year after street protests against his rule, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Friday.
By Agencies |
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's new government must swiftly release all the top judges President Pervez Musharraf detained last year after street protests against his rule, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Friday.
The New York-based watchdog wrote a letter to the election's big winners, Asif Ali Zardari of the Pakistan People's Party and Pakistan Muslim League-N leader Nawaz Sharif, urging them to restore an independent judiciary.
HRW Asia director Brad Adams also accused Britain and the United States of refusing to speak out against Musharraf, whose allies did badly in Monday's parliamentary polls.
"The refusal of the United States and the United Kingdom to press Musharraf to restore the judiciary is shameful," he said.
"Now is the test: will they continue to support Musharraf at all costs, or will they support the rule of law?"
Sixty-three top judges, including anti-Musharraf chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, were sacked on November 3 last year after the president evoked emergency rule.
Chaudhry and other top pro-democracy lawyers who led street protests in the first half of 2007 were also put under house arrest.
Firebrand lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan broke his house arrest earlier this week to call for judges to march on Islamabad unless the judiciary was restored.
The reinstatement of the judges was a key election pledge of Sharif, who on Thursday announced he would join a coalition government with frontrunner Zardari, who has been more muted on the issue.
HRW also called on the new administration to rescind curbs on the media and all other legal measures put in place under the powers of emergency rule.
"Your parties have provided an important opportunity to start a transition towards a rights-respecting government that abides by the rule of law," Adams wrote in the letter to Zardari and Sharif.
Police fired tear gas and baton charged lawyers during a demonstration in the southern port city of Karachi on Thursday, while in the eastern political heartland Lahore, some 2,000 lawyers gathered and chanted "Go, Musharraf, Go!".
Musharraf deposed Chaudhry and other leading lawyers in what opponents say was a bid to head off legal challenges to his re-election as president.
The New York-based watchdog wrote a letter to the election's big winners, Asif Ali Zardari of the Pakistan People's Party and Pakistan Muslim League-N leader Nawaz Sharif, urging them to restore an independent judiciary.
HRW Asia director Brad Adams also accused Britain and the United States of refusing to speak out against Musharraf, whose allies did badly in Monday's parliamentary polls.
"The refusal of the United States and the United Kingdom to press Musharraf to restore the judiciary is shameful," he said.
"Now is the test: will they continue to support Musharraf at all costs, or will they support the rule of law?"
Sixty-three top judges, including anti-Musharraf chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, were sacked on November 3 last year after the president evoked emergency rule.
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Chaudhry and other top pro-democracy lawyers who led street protests in the first half of 2007 were also put under house arrest.
Firebrand lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan broke his house arrest earlier this week to call for judges to march on Islamabad unless the judiciary was restored.
The reinstatement of the judges was a key election pledge of Sharif, who on Thursday announced he would join a coalition government with frontrunner Zardari, who has been more muted on the issue.
HRW also called on the new administration to rescind curbs on the media and all other legal measures put in place under the powers of emergency rule.
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"Your parties have provided an important opportunity to start a transition towards a rights-respecting government that abides by the rule of law," Adams wrote in the letter to Zardari and Sharif.
Police fired tear gas and baton charged lawyers during a demonstration in the southern port city of Karachi on Thursday, while in the eastern political heartland Lahore, some 2,000 lawyers gathered and chanted "Go, Musharraf, Go!".
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Musharraf deposed Chaudhry and other leading lawyers in what opponents say was a bid to head off legal challenges to his re-election as president.
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