Islamabad February 15, 2007: A Pakistan Peoples Party spokesperson has condemned the abuse of power to infringe on the constitutional right of citizens to freely gather and peacefully protest policies that are detrimental to the welfare of the Nation.

 

In a statement today a spokesperson of the Party condemned the imposition of section 144, preventing more than five people gathering together by the Nazim of the Musharaf-Shaukat Aziz regime in Dadu district. He said that section 144 is imposed only in the face of violent and bloody protests and is not a tool against peaceful political protests in a peaceful environment.

 

Former Law Minister Pir Mazhar ul Haq was forcibly stopped from leading recently a protest march against the abusive language used by military puppet Chief Minister Sindh with the illegal imposition of Section 144. Dadu Nazim instituted a criminal case against him at the behest of chief minister forcing him, like so many other citizens at the receiving end of a brutal military regime, to seek bail from the court that was granted on Wednesday Feb 14.

The spokesman said that the Musharaf-Aziz duo of the military regime, through its henchmen in the Punjab and Sindh have repeatedly been resorting to section 144 for stopping political opposition instead for the maintenance of law and order. Most notoriously it was used to break up the welcome reception to Senator Asif Zardari upon his return to Lahore on April 16, 2005.

 

Giving a litany of the regime’s high handedness he said that on February 10 during by elections in Sindh a provincial minister Altaf Unar ordered his bodyguards to kill Parliamentarian Dr Azra Pecheho, the sister in law of former Prime Minister Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, the former Chief Minister and member Sindh Assembly Syed Qaim Ali Shah and others travelling in a car. The members miraculously escaped as they were travelling in a bulletproof car. Both the back and front windshields of the car were shattered and a bullet lodged in the roof as volleys were fired from sub machine guns.

 

He said that the police refused to file a criminal complaint of attempted murder against the provincial minister. Subsequently on a reference to the court only a criminal complaint was filed on February 12.

 

He said that the Police officers who refused to file the criminal complaint have abused their positions and it was a fit case for concerned international bodies like UN Rapporteur on Judges and Judiciary and the International Parliamentary Union to take up.

 

The PPP condemned the attempt to turn Pakistan into Pinochet's Chile with disappearances, goon squads to intimidate opposition and murder attempts by members of the regime including Nazims and provincial ministers. The PPP called upon all citizens to save Pakistan from such thugs by supporting the PPP and its allied parties and rejecting the present tyranny.

 

On February 10 also as the PPP was winning the bye-election in Karachi, its candidate Nafees Siddiqui, his family members and other polling agents were beaten and intimidated by the MQM members of the ruling coalition. No action has been taken against those who used the goon squads to thrash male and female polling agents and also physically abused the PPP candidate.

On February 14 the PPP decided to protest the rigging and use of force in front of the Election Commission office in Karachi. The goon squads sent someone on top of the open vehicle in which the female Information Secretary of PPP, and a sitting Parliamentarians Ms Sherry Rahman was standing. With a blunt instrument they hit her on the neck. She had to be hospitalised with the MRI scan showing the injury.

 

He said that in all these cases, the Musharaf-Aziz military regime has colluded by giving political protection to the violators of law, he said. Had the ministers, mayors, thugs and police officers who refuse to do their duty arrested or proceeded against the perpetrators of these heinous and violent crimes against political opponents it would served as a deterrence. However, by giving political protection to the perpetuators of violent acts, the regime is colluding in the murder and mayhem.

 

The spokesperson recalled that the murderers of the three PPP workers in the Attock bye election of Shaukat Aziz two years ago are still free while the families of victims are grieving for justice. Six PPP workers were killed in Attock on February 9 in which the suspect is the district Nazim Attock who is related to the Chief Minister of Punjab.

 

The PPP condemns the attempt to turn Pakistan into Pinochet's Chile with disappearances, goon squads to intimidate opposition and murder attempts by members of the regime including Mayors and provincial ministers. The PPP called upon all citizens to save Pakistan from such thugs by supporting the PPP and its allied parties and rejecting the present tyranny.

 

The PPP spokesman said that those who violated the law could not hide forever as the wheel of history turned and as it turned with the triumph of democracy and the rule of law, the thugs would have to face the majesty of law just as they had to do the same in Pinochet's Chile.