Jan. 26 - Protest Musharraf in Philadelphia

[PhillyActivists]

Support the Rule of Law Demonstration

Jan 26, 5:30 pm

Protest Musharraf Lecture

location: The Franklin Institute - 222 North 20th Street, 
Philadelphia, PA


SUPPORT THE RULE OF LAW AND THE LAWYERS OF PAKISTAN ON 
MONDAY - 01/26/09!

WHAT:    Pervez Musharraf Lecture (World Affairs Council)
WHEN:   Monday January 26, 2009
WHERE: Franklin Institute, 222 North 20th Street 
Philadelphia, PA
TIME:     5:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
INFO:      pakistanjusticecoalition at gmail.com

Please join the Pakistan Justice Coalition and the 
Philadelphia Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild on 
Monday to reiterate the significance of the rule of law 
and human rights over repression and autocratic rule. As 
lawyers we have a professional and ethical responsibility 
to confront violations of the rule of law no matter where 
they occur.

The World Affairs Council of Philadelphia has invited, 
Pervez Musharraf, former military dictator of Pakistan "to 
address the prospects for peace and the formidable 
challenges of diplomacy in South Asia." It is ironic that 
a former military dictator has been invited to lecture on 
the subject of democracy and the prospect of peace when 
his rule resulted in Pakistan becoming, as President 
Clinton declared, "the most dangerous country in the 
world."

The Bush Administration supported the Musharraf regime on 
the grounds that it was an ally in the so-called "war on 
terrorism" and overlooked its violations of fundamental 
democratic rights. However, the true battle being waged 
today is not between democracy and "terrorism." Rather, it 
is the battle between advancing the values of democracy, 
rule of law and human rights, on the one hand, and 
repression and autocratic rule on the other. The way to 
combat extremism and the repressive rule to which it 
aspires is by supporting the expansion, rather than the 
contraction, of human rights.

Background Information:

On November 3, 2007, the President, in his capacity as 
Chief of Army Staff, declared an emergency and issued a 
Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) and suspended the 
constitution. Musharraf ordered the arrest and detention 
of twelve (12) of seventeen (17) Supreme Court Justices, 
sixty (60) Senior Judges and several thousand lawyers, 
journalists, and civil society members throughout 
Pakistan. Further, the (PCO) suspended fundamental rights 
guaranteed by Pakistan's Constitution such as freedom of 
movement, assembly, association, speech and property 
rights. In response bar associations all over the world 
condemned Musharraf's actions. The Philadelphia Bar 
Association stated, "We condemn the actions of the 
President of Pakistan, who has taken it upon himself to 
violently attack the lawyers and judges as he 
systematically shuts down his nation's lawful institutions 
of justice. That he does this in the name of fighting 
terrorism is horrible in the extreme. Institutions of 
democracy should never be victims of fear. It is precisely 
this strength of democracy that guarantees that a just 
society may continue, especially in troubled times." On 
August 18, 2008, in order to avoid impeachment 
proceedings, Musharraf resigned as Pakistan's President.

Musharraf's rule at a glance:

* General Perevz Musharraf came to power in 1999 through a 
military coup;

* Musharraf held the post of President and Chief of Army 
Staff (COAS) in violation of Pakistan's Constitution;

* Post 9-11, Pakistan received $11 billion dollars in 
direct U.S. aid for fighting terrorism, funds that 
Musharraf diverted in efforts to retain his support within 
the military and upgrade weapons to be used against India 
while terrorism related violence increased;

* Pakistan's intelligence agencies detained hundreds of 
persons without providing them any procedural due process 
protections pursuant to Pakistan's Constitution. Over six 
hundred persons are still missing in Pakistan;

* Journalists and press outlets faced state censorship, 
repressive policies imposed by the Pakistan Electronic 
Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), direct and indirect 
threats to media institutions and individual journalists, 
loss of advertising revenues, revocation of broadcasting 
licenses and, most insidiously self-censorship;

* Journalists working along the Afghan border alleged that 
Musharraf's government engaged in direct support of 
militants by providing arms, ammunition and supplies;

* Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) admitted that they led 
the effort to manipulate Pakistan's national election in 
2002 and offered to drop corruption cases against 
candidates who would back President Musharraf and 
Musharraf issued a series of executive decrees to bar 
political party leaders from contesting the polls;

* A historically unprecedented number of national and 
provincial seats went to the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal 
(MMA), an alliance of six religious fundamentalist 
(Pro-Taliban) parties;

* In 2006, Musharraf reached an agreement with tribal 
leaders along the Afghan border in Balochistan entailing 
the withdrawal of Pakistan's military from the tribal 
areas in exchange for self-policing by tribal leaders. A 
2007 NIE revealed that, after having been displaced from 
Afghanistan by the NATO invasion following 9-11, al-Qaeda 
had reconstituted its network and expanded its original 
capabilities in Pakistan;

* Nuclear proliferation by Pakistani authorities remains 
uninvestigated. In 2004, nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer 
Khan, whose work establishing Pakistan as a nuclear state 
won him acclaim as a national hero, admitted to running an 
international technology smuggling operation which 
provided nuclear weapons technology to Libya, Iran, and 
North Korea. Despite his initial arrest, he was eventually 
pardoned by Musharraf and has yet to be produced for 
debriefing by international investigators despite demands 
by the U.S. House of Representatives and the Swedish 
Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission; and

* Prior to his 1999 military coup, Musharraf led Pakistan 
in an armed conflict with India in the Kargil region in 
northern Kashmir. The Pakistani military fought alongside 
armed militant insurgents such as Lashkar-e-Taiba.